After saying that it will not grant new water connections for sometime now and that the Siruvani water supply situation is bad, the Coimbatore Corporation has brought to table good news: the Dedicated Pilloor Water Supply Scheme will be up and running in a couple of days.
According to Commissioner T.K. Ponnusamy, the civic body has completed the work on the Rs. 159-crore water supply project. It is awaiting the Government of Tamil Nadu Electrical Inspectorate’s clearance to switch on the motors.
“The clearance is expected by today [Tuesday] or tomorrow. Once the Corporation gets the same, it has to only switch on the motors,” he said on Tuesday while addressing the members of the City Technical Advisory Group at the Corporation.
The Corporation had installed six motors at the collection well but would operate only four, keeping the two as standby. Each of the motors had the capacity to pump 24,000 litres a minute.
Water supply
Mr. Ponnusamy said that the Corporation would gradually increase the water supply by switching on one motor at a time. It was not concerned about leaks or bursts because it was already supplying 30 million litres a day (mld) through the very pipeline.
Once all the four motors started functioning, the Corporation would be able to supply 125 mld, the designed quantity. There would not be any fall in supply because the Corporation had secured uninterrupted power supply directly from the generation point.
The commissioning of the scheme would help the Corporation tide over summer 2013 as there had been a drastic fall in water level in the Siruvani Dam.
At present, the Commissioner said, the Corporation got only around 35 mld.
The Corporation would be able to divert the Pilloor water to Siruvani-fed areas to meet the needs of the residents of those areas. This would leave only eight wards at the mercy of Siruvani water.
And with the water at hand, the Corporation would not have a problem. In fact, the Corporation planned to bring down the Siruvani withdrawal to 20 mld.
Mayor S.M. Velusamy briefed the CTAG members about the temporary and permanent measures to overcome water shortage. He spoke about the pipeline linking project and the proposal to connect the Ramakrishnapuram tank with the Siruvani Main Storage Reservoir in Bharathi Park.
Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu, Corporation engineers and CTAG members participated in the meeting.
