The Corporation Council, which is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, is expected to take a favourable decision in this regard, sources said. The renovation of the treatment plant is envisaged in the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) and will be implemented with the Rs 27 crore financial aid from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“The work will be based on the proposals submitted by the KWA. The state-level technical committee had already given its sanction for the detailed project report (DPR) prepared by the WAPCOS,” sources said.

The major work will be the renovation of the pumping head, replacement of old pump sets and filter media and construction of an underground water sump pump.

KWA’s work in Aluva is centred around four treatment plants with allied units. Two of these plants were installed during the 60s and 70s and augmented till the 90s. The combined installed capacity being 225 million litres per day (mld), it is the sole source of drinking water to most parts of Kochi and adjoining panchayats. A visit to the plant reveals that unavailability of space is the major constraint for its further expansion. So the immediate requirement is renovation of the existing plant and the optimisation of facilities.

Due to the long delay in the maintenance of the plant, many vital components are almost defunct. The existing civil structures with their leaking roofs and cracked floors need repair work urgently. Though the installed capacity is 225 mld, the present plant could not even function to half its capacity.

“In the renovation phase, a new sump and pump house of one million litre capacity will be installed in place of the old dilapidated one. A separate tender will be floated to lay imported UG cables from the KSEB sub station to the newly constructed sub station at Aluva,” sources said.