Urban News

The Hindu 13.07.2009

TWAD Board-constructed STP remains unused

Karthik Madhavan

ERODE: The sewage treatment plant and gas collection unit the Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage (TWAD) Board constructed for Rs. 2.19 crore remains unused.

The reason: Veerappan Chatram Municipality, which is supposed to take responsibility for the day-to-day functioning and maintenance of the facility, has not done so citing one reason or the other. The story goes back to July 2001, exactly eight years ago, when the Board, under the Union Government’s National River Action Plan, constructed sewage collection and treatment facility to treat sewage flowing through Pichaikaran Pallam Odai to protect River Cauvery.

The Board’s facility aimed at removing solid waste from the Odai sewage and then treating the water. It designed the treatment facility in such a way that sewage flows through a series of aeration tanks. In the last tank, it let the sunlight fall to help algae growth and tap gas.

The Board built the facility, proposed to treat 5.7 million litres a day, on a 4.5 acre plot near Vairapalayam and commissioned the plant in 2004.

Since then the Board has not been able to hand over the facility to the Veerappan Chatram Municipality. This is despite the fact that the civic body’s Council passed a resolution in February 2002 agreeing to take up maintenance work. As per TWAD Board’s calculation the maintenance worked out to Rs. 20.79 lakh. It also calculated the income from the sale of treated water, rich in content, for agriculture and the inflammable gas at Rs. 22.36 lakh. But nothing much happened, as the Municipality argued that since sewage from neighbouring Periya Semur Municipality, B.P. Agraharam Town Panchayat also flowed through the Odai, it was unfair to expect it to bear the entire maintenance cost.

The TWAD Board on its part said since the sewage treatment plant and other facilities existed in Veerappan Chatram Municipality’s limits, it ought to take responsibility.

The difference of opinion continues to date with the TWAD Board and Municipality sticking to their stands. To break the deadlock, the Managing Director of TWAD wrote a letter to the Commissioner for Municipal Administration asking for the STP’s take over.

In the meanwhile, the motor that pumps the sewage to the aeration tanks has been under repair for the past three months. This means that for the past three months the TWAD Board has not been able to treat the water.

In effect, sewage directly flows in to River Cauvery, negating the very purpose for which the Union Government spent Rs. 2.19 crore. Now TWAD has again written to the Commissioner for Municipal Administration seeking Rs. 2.6 lakh to repair the motors.

The Hindu 13.07.2009

Most suburbs have no pavements

K. Lakshmi and K. Manikandan

CHENNAI: Pavements are facilities that still remain alien to most suburbs around the city. Forced to walk along roads in heavy traffic zones, pedestrians face the risk of being hit by speeding vehicles.

Residents of Ambattur said that walking along arterial roads and school zones was risky during morning hours as pedestrians vie for space with motorists. With many roads being dug up in the western and northern suburbs for civic works, pedestrians are forced to walk in the middle of the road.

Anitha Raman of Maduravoyal said that incidents of pedestrians being knocked down by speeding vehicles was a regular feature.

Only a few areas can boast of footpaths. While Kaladipet in the northern suburb of Tiruvottiyur has a footpath, in the southern suburbs, the stretch of Grand Southern Trunk Road between Chennai Airport and Kathipara intersection and on Mount Poonamallee Road between St. Thomas Mount and Chennai Trade Centre – all arterial roads – lack pavements. Similarly, Medavakkam Main Road lacks pavements.

Meanwhile, the Alandur Municipality plans to build pavements on Eswaran Koil Street in Ayyappa Nagar. Residents complained that Velachery Main Road, which is maintained by the State Highways Department, has pavements only within the Chennai Corporation limits.

Public convenience facilities, ticket counters of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and shops have usurped footpath spaces on GST Road, Tambaram, they added.

Officials of the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply said that it was not possible for many cash-strapped municipalities and town panchayats to construct pavements immediately as they were already burdened with the problems of providing basic amenities.

Officials of various municipalities in northern and western suburbs said that they were unable to provide footpaths, as most of the arterial roads belong to the National Highways Authority of India or the State Highways.

“We are now concentrating on upgrading earthen roads to tar roads. Once the developmental works are completed in the area, pavements would be constructed,” said a senior official of Ambattur Municipality.

An official of Madhavaram Municipality said that in the absence of a proper underground sewerage network, open canals along the streets still carry sewage and rainwater. Once the sewerage network is provided, open canals would give way for pavements. The roads are also constantly dug up for developmental schemes and during rains. “We plan to provide pavements in Thanikachalam Nagar along with road restoration work after completion of underground drainage project,” the official said.

An official of Avadi Municipality said that unlike roads in city, most of the streets in suburbs are less than 20 feet wide. There are plans to widen and lay new roads along with pavements once the major civic works are completed.