City residents can expect a significant addition to water supply by the middle of summer 2020 with work progressing at a swift pace in Aruvikkara on the new 75 mld (million litres a day) treatment plant. The facility, in addition to augmenting piped supply, would also serve as emergency backup.
Civil works related to the Rs 60-crore project are almost over. Mechanical works have kicked off, senior Kerala Water Authority (KWA) officials said. ''We are aiming to commission the project by March 31 as planned. The additional supply will be more than enough to cater to city requirements in the coming years,'' said Suresh Chandran, KWA Superintending Engineer, PH Circle Thiruvananthapuram. The work is being carried out by Kochi-based Chicago Constructions International Pvt Ltd.
Getting ready under the centrally-sponsored Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), the 75 mld facility will complement the existing 72 mld, 86 mld and the 74 mld water treatment facilities in Aruvikkara. Its operations are being designed in a manner that all the main KWA tanks in the city would get a share of the additional supply.
Technology-wise, the new plant will be a step forward, KWA officials said. For the pumping of raw water from the reservoir, it will use two 710 HP centrifugal pumps, one of which will be of the submersible type. The advantage of the latter is that it will enable pumping even when reservoir levels are low. As part of the AMRUT project, the KWA also aims to install a 735 HP submersible pump in the raw water tank of the 72 mld plant which will act as stand-by for emergencies.
Further, the 75 mld plant will employ a more advanced technology for treating water collected from the reservoir. Unlike the 72 and 86 mld plants that use conventional treatment systems and the 74 mld facility which employs a pulsator clarifier, the 75 mld plant will be equipped with a lamella clarifier (inclined plate settler) for removing particulates from raw water. This reduces cost, the space required and produces clearer water. The clear-water facility of the plant will be equipped with four 430 HP pumps, two of which will be kept on stand-by.
From Aruvikkara, water will be pumped to the KWA tanks at PTP Nagar and Peroorkada for citywide distribution. Additionally, the 75 mld plant will also enable the KWA to top up, whenever required, another tank in Aruvikkara built under the JICA-assisted 74 mld project.
The 75 mld facility was proposed to meet the rising water demands of an expanding city which already consumes 270-280 mld. The plant is one of two important initiatives from the KWA stable to ensure water security in the long term. A bigger project - the 120 mld treatment plant in Neyyar - is expected to be completed by March 2021. The city stands to get 100 mld additionally from this project. The remaining 20 mld would be shared by four panchayats in the Neyyar region.
Earlier this month, the State Government had given the KWA the go-ahead for desilting the entire Aruvikkara reservoir. Desiltation would restore reservoir capacity, thereby aiding various water supply augmentation projects envisaged for Thiruvananthapuram, the Water Resources Department has noted.
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