In an attempt to save water, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) will soon install a water treatment plant with a capacity of 80 Kilo Litres per Day (KLD).
According to officials of CMRL, they have been exploring the possibility of better water management to reduce the dependence on Metrowater. This plant will be installed in the administrative building of CMRL located in Koyambedu.
“With this, we will treat the borewell water and use it for various purposes, including washing of trains. We called for tenders a few weeks ago and will soon award the contract. It should be installed and commissioned in a few months,” an official said.
The installation and commissioning of the plant will cost about ₹38 lakh, and the operational cost for the plant will be ₹10 lakh a year, the official added. “According to our estimates, we are spending nearly ₹30 lakh a year on our purchases from Metrowater and for three years, it will cost us ₹90 lakh. By using this plant, we will save on water and money to a great extent,” he added.
While the administrative building uses about 40,000 litres of water a day, the elevated and underground stations need about 25,000 and 15,000 litres of water respectively.
Other efforts
This apart, they have already started a mechanism through which they save about 2,000 litres of water every day. In this mechanism, the condensed water collected from airconditioners are collected and deployed for cleaning of toilets, trains and watering plants.
Initially, this is being carried out in the administrative building alone where there are 110 air conditioners; the water is collected through pipes and then reaches the sump in the building. Later, the CMRL will expand this facility to the stations as well.