As the water treatment plant at Maradu gets ready for commissioning, the municipality will start getting water from Piravom in a couple of days.
With partial commissioning of the plant, the city will have twin sources of water — the Periyar and the Muvattupuzha rivers.
The 11-kV dedicated line of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) was connected on Thursday. The 100-million-litres-a-day Maradu plant, built under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), will produce about 21 mld water that will be supplied to Maradu municipality (14 mld) and Kumbalam panchayat (7 mld).
For the past two days, water from the plant was pumped to the existing overhead tank at Maradu to clean dirt in the newly laid pipeline. When the muddy water gets clear, it will go into the distribution pipeline.
A senior official at the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) told The Hindu that there would be high level of chlorination for a couple of days when distribution begins.
A major hurdle in the full commissioning of the plant is the push-through work under the railway line at Aroor that is to provide new connectivity to Kumbalanghi and Chellanam. Yet another hurdle is spread over 12 points of connectivity in the 1,108-metre pipeline to the Port Trust and the Thevara pump.
The Maradu plant at present has the capacity to draw 50 mld from the source at Piravom. By the end of the month, another pump is expected to be installed. JNNURM officials said other works would be completed in time.
