TWAD Board objects to Tangedco’s underground cable near water pipeline

Coimbatore Corporation and Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board have taken exception to the underground power cable that the Tangedco is laying on the Edayarpalayam-Vadavalli Road.

Sources said the Tangedco was laying the power cable so close to the water supply line that either the civic body or TWAD Board, whichever agency maintains the Kavundampalayam-Vadavalli drinking water supply improvement scheme, would find it difficult to take up maintenance work.

They said that it was important that the Tangedco took a relook at where it laid the pipeline because the water supply line was a feeder main or the main supply line linking two water tanks and the power cable looked like a high voltage cable.

When the TWAD Board or Corporation would attend to repair or maintenance work on the water pipeline, the Tangedco would be forced to shutdown power supply, depriving residents concerned without power and water.

TWAD Board sources said the agency had taken the issue to the notice of the Tangedco and the latter had assured it in writing of cooperation by switching off power supply while taking up the work to maintain water supply line.

Commenting on the problem, consumer activist K. Kathirmathiyon said this was always a ticking time-bomb because when the pipeline needed to be repaired or replaced, the same set of officers from both the agencies might not be posted here, the then engineers might not be aware of the ground reality and therefore any repair work could prove catastrophic.

Any accident arising out of the proximity of the cable, water pipeline, gas pipeline and underground drainage line would make officials of all the four government agencies equally culpable, he added.