Drink Cauvery Water from April

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  Collector R Nanthagopal inspecting the trial run of the water supply scheme, in Kodiyur, on Friday | EXPRESS

J Shanmugha Sundaram 

VELLORE:Come April, Velloreans will get treated drinking water from river Cauvery through the Combined Water Supply Scheme (CWSS).   Vellore Corporation, 11 municipalities, five town panchayats and 944 rural habitations are scheduled to benefit from this scheme.

The Rs 1,295 crore project aimed at finding a permanent solution to the water scarcity in the district has been designed to supply 135 litres of water per capita per day (LPCD) to Vellore corporation, 90 LPCD to 11 municipalities, 70 LPCD to five town panchayats and 40 LPCD to 944 rural habitations. “We will be able to supply drinking water from Cauvery from the second week of April,” said Collector R Nanthagopal after witnessing raw water reaching Kodiyur near Jolarpet on Thursday night.

Officials of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board commenced the trial run of pumping raw water from Mettur (zero point) to clean the pipelines on March 20 this year. The project commenced in mid 2012, a senior official in the department told Express.

Sources in the department said the department had been pumping around 40,000 to 50,000 litres of raw water per second from Thottiapatti, 1.5 km downstream of Mettur dam, in Salem since March 20. “Within two days, the water crossed 80 kilometres of the pipeline installed during phase-I (Thottiapatti near the Mettur Thermal Power plant to Kadathur Ridge point) of the project,” said a senior official.

The raw water reached Vaniyambadi (phase-2) through gravity force at about 9 pm on Thursday. From there, the water crossed Pallikonda at about 3 pm on Friday.

The officials were confident that it would touch Sathuvachari by Friday night. “Dust and waste materials such as left-out gunny and cement bags inside the pipe have been flushed out due to the water pressure,” said the official.

The trial run would continue for the next two to three weeks to ensure that the pipeline is fit to supply drinking water. “Once the work is completed, drinking water will be supplied to the people of Vellore,” he added.

However, there seems to be a delay in completing the construction and erection of pipeline as part of phase-3 from Vaniyambadi to Arakkonam. “Only around 85 percent work of construction work relating to overhead tanks, sumps and laying pipeline has been completed in phase-3. After it is completed thoroughly, we will start trial runs from Sathuvachari to Arakkonam,” he further said.

Obtaining clearance from the National Highway Authority of India and Railways to erect the gravity pipeline across its facilities in phase - 2 and 3 and erecting feeders and electric lines for the booster stations in phase-I delayed the project, alleged officials.

“We are seven months

behind the scheduled period of completing the major project. The delay was due to the lengthy process in acquiring land and getting the nod from NHAI and Railways for the project,” said the official.