The sources also say that the final report, likely to be submitted by year-end, will cite instances of financial irregularities in the scheme.

The wells are believed to have failed apparently due to wrong selection of sites and the strata of sand available.

Sources said the burden would be mainly financial, as there is no expected rise in water requirement in the near future. Conservative estimates put the cost at anything upwards of Rs 15 crore. This, sources say, is based on the fact that the filtration plant at Nimeta is being set up at a cost of nearly Rs 7 crore and the two wells at Raika and Dodka, along with infrastructure, cost Rs 80 crore in 1995.

Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria admitted that the report had been submitted but refused to give details, saying he had passed on the report to Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Administration) H S Patel. Action would be taken, Aloria said, once he received a note from Patel and the final report. Patel was not available for comment.

The Panam scheme -- the VMC's biggest ever -- comprises two french wells at Raika and Dodka on the Mahisagar, having a combined capacity of 112.5 million litre per day (mld), three water tanks and two trunk lines. Their technical fallibility had been apparent since they were commissioned in 1995; the committee's report has served to underline the failure theory.

As a result of the technical failure, the VMC has to lay channels and ponds in the river bed every year to bring water closer to the wells when the water level recedes after the monsoon. The annual exercise, which costs Rs 60 lakhs, is currently under way.

Readings taken daily by the VMC have indicated that the two french wells have never worked to their fullest installed capacity. While the maximum drawal has been reported to be 112 mld from each well at the time of floods (approximately two days every year), summer readings are often as low as 20 mld per well. The average works out to about 60 mld.

The VMC manages to meet the demand for water by drawing excess water from two other french wells -- at Fajalpur and Poicha -- and the Ajwa reservoir.

The committee's suggestions, sources say, include construction of a west weir in the river to bring water near the wells. Given the likely expenditure involved, the VMC may be forced to enter collaboration with other agencies.

Another suggestion is to set up one more french well on the river bed in such a manner that the existing infrastructure could be utilised.

A third suggestion, reportedly, is to draw surface water from Mahisagar by installing a filtration plant. Incidentally, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation's General Board has already accepted in principle the decision to set up a filtration plant if the committee so recommended.