The long wait of city residents for domestic water connections may finally come to an end in a few weeks from now. The civic body has completed the Rs.178-crore augmentation scheme through the financial support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and has decided to provide 20,000 connections to the needy households immediately. To ease the burden of applicants who have to shell out Rs.6,000 towards deposit, the civic body was also contemplating to introduce an easy instalment scheme for those availing the connections within a month from the stipulated date, which is to be announced shortly.
Revealing the plan, V.P.Thandapani, Commissioner, Tiruchirappalli City Corporation, told The Hindu on Thursday that plans are afoot to provide new connections to residents on demand. With the completion of the scheme, the Corporation now has the capacity to extend 1 lakh new connections in addition to the existing 92,703 connections. In the first phase, 20,000 connections would be given immediately.
Residents of all areas including the newly-created colonies and those living in erstwhile Tiruchi municipality limits could get new connections as the pipeline had covered most parts of the 54 square km Corporation limit. Distribution line had been provided to an extent of 385 km in the city.
Mr.Thandapani added that the total water pumping capacity of the corporation had gone up to 168 MLD (million litres a day) from the existing 128 MLD. The supply of drinking water would also go up from 110 LPCD (litres per capita per day) to 135 LPCD per person in the city.
As far as the five wards in Tiruverumbur newly included in the Tiruchi Corporation are concerned, the civic authorities are coordinating with the Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage Board (TWARD) for supplying drinking water. About 90 LPCD was being supplied to each resident in the wards. Steps would be initiated to augment the resources to improve water supply in these wards, sources said.
