The much-delayed plan for a sewerage network covering the Kazhakuttam-Technopark-Medical College area seems to be finally taking off, with its Detailed Project Report (DPR) coming up for approval at a meeting of the State-level High Power Committee later this week.
The project is being taken up under the Central government’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. The city Corporation has readied land for the setting up of pumping stations at five locations — Shanthi Nagar, near Technopark, Venpalavattom, Akkulam and Idathara. “The project is for the construction of a gravity line. To this, interconnecting lines can be added at a later point of time. One of the challenges for us will be to get this done with minimal cutting of tar, as some of these areas have newly laid out roads,” says a Corporation official.
Key project
Expansion of the sewerage networks within the core city areas to improve the utilisation of the sewage treatment plant at Muttathara is a key project to be taken up under the AMRUT scheme.
The Muttathara plant that has a capacity to treat 107-million litres of waste a day is currently running at around 30% capacity.
To classify coverage of sewerage networks, the 100 wards of the Corporation are divided into 18 blocks. Out of this, such networks are present only in the four blocks from A to D, which covers the core city area. The earliest of these networks was commissioned before Independence. Even in these areas, the coverage is not 100%. Areas like Kazhakuttam, which has seen a developmental boom in recent years, have remained unconnected to this network.
The network that will begin from Kazhakuttam now is proposed to be connected to the Muttathara sewage treatment plant. A decentralised sewerage treatment plant of 5 Million Litres per Day (MLD) capacity will be installed in the medical college area.
