In the wake of complaints related to rampant encroachment on property belonging to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) in the city, the water utility has asked the Kerala State Remote Sensing and Environment Centre (KSRSEC) to speed up its survey to generate information management system on its assets.
Managing Director of KWA Ashok Kumar Singh told The Hindu that the survey would help the water utility generate an online database of its assets, including the road network through which the drinking water transmission line had been laid and property that houses its pump houses.
“The mapping, which is on a GIS platform, would help us create a database on our assets. Apart from recording the assets, we will be able to retrieve information about the size of an underground transmission line, location and pressure of water,” Mr Singh said.
As of now, there is no accurate map available with the water utility on its pipeline network. The maps would help the water utility get an exact picture of the distribution network that criss-crosses the city, said an official with KWA.
An official with KSRSEC said the agency had commenced preparation of GIS-aided maps of pipeline network in the city on June 16. A similar exercise would be conducted in Kochi, Kollam, Ernakulam and Kozhikode, he added. Encroachment in several areas in the city has left KWA clueless on its assets. The Peroorkada- Vellayambalam stretch, which is known under KWA parlance as Pipeline Road because of the distribution line passing through the area, alone had been encroached at 20 places by private parties.
Encroachments in Vazhuthacaud, East Fort, Pattoor and Bakery Junction have also come to the notice of the KWA, the official said. Several properties that had come up along the pipeline route has to be knocked down.
“The encroachment is not just the loss of land. The more worrying aspect is that if there is going to be an underground burst the impact on the building will be powerful enough for it to collapse,” the official said.
