The Hindu 13.05.2010
Four leaks in Pilloor water supply line plugged
Special Correspondent
Photo: K.Ananthan 
Vital task: A worker from TWAD Board attending to a leak in the Pilloor water supply main pipeline near Keeranatham in Coimbatore on Wednesday.
COIMBATORE: Normal supply of drinking water under the Pilloor scheme may resume in the city only on Friday, according to water supply officials in the Coimbatore Corporation.
The supply was suspended for a day on Wednesday to plug leaks in the main supply line at Keeranatham near the city. The leaks were detected on Tuesday the wastage of water through these was put at one million litres a day.
The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board and the Coimbatore Corporation decided to go in for a one-day shutdown to plug the leaks.
Scarcity
Though the Pilloor scheme areas in the city reeled under water scarcity, the Corporation said it preferred the shutdown for a day to the worsening of the problem in the main pipe.
There were three leaks in the joints of the line at Keeranatham and another near Saravanampatti, closer to the city.
A senior official of the water board said 50 workers set about the task of plugging the leaks since 6 a.m., as the board and the Corporation wanted the works completed by 10 p.m.
The supply from the pumping station at Velliyangadu would begin soon after the works were over.
But, normal distribution within the city would take another day, the Corporation’s Assistant Engineer in charge of Pilloor supply K. Karuppusamy said.
Owing to the halt in supply to facilitate the works, the main service reservoir (or overhead tank) at Saravanampatti now had only one million litres of Pilloor water, out of the total capacity of three million litres.
The tank should fill up after the resumption of supply. Only then could the Corporation provide normal supply in the city.
“We can start the supply early on Thursday, but it will not be the normal one. Things will stabilise only on Friday,” the water supply official said.
The areas that should have got water on Wednesday would be the first ones to get the supply when the Corporation would resume it on Thursday.
The Coimbatore Corporation would have to make up for the loss of a day in this case.
