The Hindu              29.07.2013

Corporation races against time to repair damaged sewer pipe

On Sunday morning, Corporation engineers were busy working on Mill Road, near the flyover. They had barricaded the road, right from the Mill Road — N.H. Road Junction to the roundabout on the flyover to prevent the entry of vehicles. Within the barricaded zone, were heavy machinery, concrete pipes, workers and officials.

The Corporation engineers said that they were removing sewer lines that got damaged a couple of days ago. The 600mm concrete pipes, laid 40 years ago, caved in due to usage. The earth above it sank, created a dent on the road, and the sewage started overflowing onto the road through manholes as the earth choked the flow.

The engineers said that they first diverted the sewage from Lawley Road, Sundakamuthur, Thadagam Road, Gandhi Park, Sukhrawarpet, Mill Road and Thiagaraya Pudhu Veethi at four points — Thadagam Road, Gandhi Park, Mill Road — N.H. Road Junction and Thiagaraya Pudhu Veethi so that the waste water reached Muthannankulam, the open drain along the Good Shed Road, Valangulam and the sewage treatment plant in Ukkadam.

They did so to ensure flow of sewage and also to prevent it from entering the work spot on Mill Road. They then used a 120 tonne earth mover to dig the road but it was of no use as machine could not do the job.

They then used a 200 tonne earth mover. They used the machine to first drill holes across the road to remove asphalt to access the damaged pipeline. After removing the pipeline and the earth around it, they began placing fresh concrete pipelines, one after another to cover the entire 84m stretch of the damaged Trunk Main.

The engineers said that by Sunday afternoon they had completed 50 per cent of the task in that they had placed the concrete pipes, cemented the joints using special cement and filled earth atop the pipes. But they had to abandon the work around 5pm to enable drinking water supply to Town Hall and areas around it, for the pipeline carrying the water sat next to the damaged sewer line. If they were to remove earth, the drinking water pipeline too would have caved in, without being able to withstand the pressure of the running water.

The water supply went on for about three hours and they commenced the work around 8pm, the engineers said and added that they hoped to work over night to restore the traffic by Monday morning.

City Engineer K. Sugumar, Central Zone Chairman K. Aadhinarayanan and Ward 81 Councillor M.A. Kuthbutheen were at the spot supervising the work.

The Times of India               27.07.2013

Corporation to release list of licensed plumbers by the end of July

COIMBATORE: The city corporation is in the process of finalising the list of licensed plumbers within its limits and is expected to release the list by the end of July. Fresh water connections are expected to be given after this process in the first week of August. The corporation had earlier announced that fresh water connections will be given starting July 1 after the six-month long freeze imposed when the water level in Siruvani reservoir drastically dipped in December 2012.

"We expect to give fresh water connections during the first week of August. We don't foresee any problems as we have adequate water now," said G Latha, Commissioner, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.

As of now, more than 3000 water connection applications have been put on hold due to the temporary freeze order. The corporation has also tweaked the earlier proposed conditions for granting license to plumbers for providing water and underground drainage connections in the city. It had earlier proposed a minimum educational qualification of class 10, solvency certificate of Rs5lakh, three years experience and a security deposit of Rs2lakh with the corporation for granting plumbers' license.

"We have modified the norms required for granting the license and expect the procedure to be completed within a few days," said S Sivarasu, deputy commissioner, Coimbatore municipal corporation.

During its council meeting held on Wednesday, the corporation approved a resolution to relax the norms and grant license to eligible plumbers with two years previous experience along with a security deposit of Rs1lakh. They must submit solvency certificate worth Rs1lakh and must have minimum educational qualification of class 8 to apply for license. As of now there are 2,51,950 water connections in all five zones of the city corporation.

"The corporation is now interviewing plumbers who have applied for the license. We have been asked to present our certificates and other required documents," said M Senthil Kumar, a member of Licensed Plumbers Association of Coimbatore Corporation. The association has about 58 plumbers registered from the old corporation limits. The number is expected to go up to 100 after the plumbers from the newly added areas are also granted license.