Water re-cycling plant yet to be commissioned

At Nalan Kulam at Sri Dharbaranyeswarar Temple in Tirunallar

Water from the Nalan Kulam at Sri Dharbaranyeswarar Temple in Tirunallar being pumped out for emptying the tank.— Photo: M. Srinath

The water re-cycling plant at the Nalan Kulam at Sri Dharbaranyeswarar Temple in Tirunallar in the district is yet to be commissioned.

The project is aimed at re-cycling huge volume of water that is now being pumped out using electric motors on Tuesdays and Fridays to facilitate supply of fresh water. The entire tank is emptied after collecting clothes abandoned by devotees. Work on the recycling plant was taken up to protect the ground water table in and around the temple.

The water for the tank is drawn from the borewell at different levels depending on flow of devotees. The water level reaches its peak on Saturdays when devotees turn up in large numbers, officials said. The volume of water drawn ranges from 25 lakh to 40 lakh litres.

The treatment plant, with a capacity of handling 12 lakh litres, comprises a series of tanks to treat water through filtering process. While three tanks are uniform in size with 5.5 metres in diameter and six metres in height, the collection tank is larger with 16 metres in diameter and four metres in height.

The filtering process will be taken up in two phases through aeration filter and sand filter.

While civil work has been completed, electrical work would be taken up in course of time.

Being executed at an outlay of Rs. 2.14 crore under the Tirunallar Temple Town Development project, the work was expected to be completed by March this year. Once operational, the treatment plant would handle 12 lakh litres daily.

Although major works pertaining to the construction of tanks have been completed, some other components including the electrical works are yet to be taken up. Official sources at the temple, when contacted, said that they were awaiting an inspection by Chennai-based technicians. The work would resume soon, they said.