The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Additional overhead tank in Koyambedu

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Friday, Dec 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Additional overhead tank in Koyambedu

K.Lakshmi

A huge ditch, often filled with stagnant water, closed to facilitate the plan

The ditch is located on the Metrowater-owned land near the Choolaimedu head works

CHENNAI: Residents of Koyambedu have a reason to be happy. A huge ditch, often filled with stagnant water on a vacant land near the Chennai Metrowater distribution station in their area, has been closed to facilitate construction of an additional overhead tank.

Residents said the ditch, which was filled with water almost round the year, served as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. It was a long pending demand of the residents to close the ditch as sullage often collected in it whenever sewer lines were damaged, posing a threat to the groundwater.

Metrowater officials, however, said that only rainwater collected in the ditch, which has now been levelled using 500 truck loads of sand. The ditch is located on the Metrowater-owned land near the Choolaimedu head works spread across three acres.

Rainwater from the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus area and the neighbouring localities flowed into the ditch and stagnated for a few months.

A Metrowater official said several areas, including Saligramam, Arumbakkam MMDA Colony and Virugambakkam, were supplied drinking water from the head works whose capacity is nearly 40 million litres a day.

Following the levelling of the ditch, Metrowater proposes to construct another overhead tank in the area for additional storage capacity. The project details, including its cost, are being prepared. Similarly, another ditch on a land belonging to Metrowater near the Koyambedu wholesale market was also being levelled to set up an additional sewage treatment plant, the official said.

Open house meetings

Open house meetings will be conducted at all Chennai Metrowater area offices and adjacent urbanised office from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

According to a press release, the meetings are aimed at serving as a forum of interaction between the residents and Metrowater officials on issues pertaining to water supply and sewage disposal.

The area offices are: Area I (Kodungaiyur, Tondiarpet), Area II (Royapuram, Washermenpet), Area III (Perambur, Vysarpadi), Area IV (Kilpauk, Ayanavaram), Area V (Anna Nagar, Mogappair), Area VI (Chepauk, Triplicane), Area VII (Chetpet, Nungambakkam), Area VIII ( T.Nagar, Kodambakkam), Area IX (Saidapet, Kotturpuram), Area X A (Alwarpet, Mylapore) and Area X B (Adyar, Tiruvanmiyur, Velachery).

The adjacent urbanised office for Mogappair East/West and Anna Nagar West Extension is on T.S. Krishna Nagar Main Road, Mogappair.

Consumers may lodge their complaints and also get their doubts regarding water, sewerage tax and water charges clarified at the meetings. Superintending engineers would visit the meetings in area offices under their jurisdiction.

At the meetings conducted in November, 97 complaints were received regarding water supply and sewage disposal of which 88 have been rectified. Action is being taken on the remaining nine complaints, the release said.

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