In July, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board would
commence the trial run of the Combined Water Supply Scheme (CWSS) to
Vellore Corporation, 11 municipalities, five town panchayats and 944
rural habitations with river Cauvery as the source in Vellore district.

Keeping
pace with the stipulated time frame of the project, the officials of
the TWAD Board said over 65 per cent of the work worth `707 crore of the
`1,295 crore project had been completed as on January 15 this year.

“The
agreement period for the completion of the project is January 2015, but
we are aiming at providing Cauvery water to people of Vellore district
before the Pongal festival next year. The project is progressing
smoothly and will be completed well ahead of the agreement period,” said
a senior official in the department.

The trial run of the project
would begin in the month of August. It would be continued for a minimum
of four months, to monitor the functioning of all mechanism, starting
from raw water pumping station at the zero point in Thotilpatti near
Mettur to the last over head tank and surface level sumps in Arakkonam
in Vellore district.

“We will check and monitor the mechanism and
infrastructure along the entire stretch of 308 km from the starting
point to the end point. We will check for reservoir tightness, hydraulic
pressure, seepage in pipelines and storage of water in sumps and
overhead tanks during the period. It will take a minimum of three to
four months to ensure supply of water without any hindrance to the end
user,” the official  noted. The department has also obtained the no
objection certificate from the National Highway Authority of India and
the Southern Railways, to lay gravity pipelines across the NH roads and
below the railway tracks at various spots, in package II and III of the
CWSS, said the officials.

Under package II, the work of installing
pipelines in the 85 km-stretch, from Kadathur in Dharmapuri to
Vaniyambadi in Vellore, the work has been completed in around 60
kilometre of the stretch. In package-I, works such as construction of
raw water pumping station, treatment plant and clear water pumping
station at Thotilpatti, three booster stations at Komburankadu and
Palakkanur in Salem district and Muthampatti in Dharmapuri district were
in progress.

Under package-III, which covers a total of 147.30
kilometre from Vaniyambadi to Arakkonam, works such as installing
pipelines, constructing surface level sumps, reservoirs and over head
tanks were in different stages of completion, said the official. The
officials have also communicated the Tamil Nadu Generation and
Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) to set up four separate feeders
under package I of the project, to pump water from the source point to
the master balancing reservoirs (MBR) at Kadathur Ridge point.

“We
requested the TANGEDCO to install two separate feeders at each point to
ensure uninterrupted power supply to the pumping stations. We requested
them to install the feeders before the end of July. We have sent an
official communication regarding this in the second week of January this
year,” the official added further.