With Mayor S.M. Velusamy switching on a motor in the Pilloor Dedicated Drinking Water Supply Scheme on Monday, the Corporation has commissioned the much-awaited drinking water scheme.
The 125 million litres a day (mld) the Corporation would get in the coming days from the scheme would help it manage the 2013 summer water supply.
Mr. Velusamy commissioned the Rs.156 crore scheme in the presence of Commissioner in-charge S. Sivarasu, Executive Engineer P. Ganeshwaran, Executive Engineer, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, A. Iqbal and others.
Mr. Velusamy said that the Corporation would, for the first 24 hours, use one of the six motors to pump around 32 mld. It would then in phases switch on three motors to take the total supply to around 125 mld. But this would take about a week as the Corporation wanted to gradually increase the pressure on the pipeline. Two motors would be on standby.
As and when the city got 125 mld from the scheme, also called the Pilloor II, it would have around 200 mld for supply to the city’s residents – around 30 from the Siruvani scheme and 53 from the Pilloor I scheme.
Mr. Velusamy assured reporters that the residents need not entertain apprehensions because the Corporation would have sufficient water for supply at regular intervals. “Gone will be the days when the civic body supplied water once in 10 – 14 days.”
The Corporation began implementing the project sometime in 2009 with funds from the Central Government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
The original estimate for the project was Rs. 113.73 crore. But the delay in execution and escalation in cost of materials drove up the expenditure to Rs. 156 crore.
Expenses
Commissioner in-charge Mr. Sivarasu said that the civic body would bear the expenses from its General Fund.
The Corporation divided the work in to six packages. Five of those – pipeline laying work from Kattan Hills to the Ramakrishnapuram Main Storage Reservoir and treatment plant at Velliangadu – were completed a while ago. The sixth package – construction of collection well in the Pilloor Dam – was delayed.
Mr. Sivarasu said that the delay was due to flooding in the collection well. It happened twice.
The Corporation had laid collection pipes at two levels in the 29-metre deep well – at 22 metres and seven metres. When the water is at a minimum, the motors would use the pipe at 22 metres to draw water. And when the water level is high, the moors would use the pipeline at seven metres.
Each of the six motors has 375 hp power and can pump 24,000 litres a minute.
The Corporation would divert the Pilloor water to Siruvani-fed areas to overcome the shortage in supply.
The Mayor pointed out that the civic body had linked the two pipelines at five places in the city and was in the process of linking it at Kannappan Nagar Junction, on Sanganur Road.
He reiterated that Corporation had sufficient water to cater to the residents’ need this summer.
