Amid the acute water shortage in the city, Chennai Metro Rail is pitching in to do its bit. It has adopted a mechanism that will help save about 2,000 litres of water every day.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the condensed water dripping from the air conditioners will be collected and used for various purposes.
“For a start, this process has been tried in the administrative building of CMRL in Koyambedu. Soon, we plan to extend it to the stations along the underground stretch from Thirumangalam to Nehru Park,” an official said.
The administrative building alone consumes 40,000 litres of water per day, sources said. Stations on the elevated corridor and the underground corridor consume about 25,000 and 15,000 litres respectively.
“The purified water will be used for cleaning toilets, washing trains or watering plants on the CMRL premises,” he added.
Cautious use
Chennai Metro Rail gets 90% of its water supply from Chennai Metrowater and the remaining is purchased from private water supplier.
“We have been asked to be very cautious about water consumption and reduce it to the maximum extent possible,” an official said.
Delhi Metro has installed effluent and sewerage treatment plants that have helped it reuse about 140 kilolitres of water every day.
Similarly, Mumbai Metro too has a water treatment plant, from which four lakh litres of recycled water is obtained.
The water is used to wash coaches.
A few months ago, Chennai Metrowater issued a statement saying it would be mandatory for special and multi-storeyed buildings to have facilities to recycle waste water.
