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.