The Hindu            23.10.2013

86 p.c. of underground drainage work complete

Execution of the underground drainage scheme has gathered pace with 86 per cent of the work completed in Ariyalur.

Work on the Rs.27.5-crore project had been taken up in two phases. The first phase, being executed at a cost of Rs. 22.43 crore, covers 36 km, including arterial roads of the town.

The State government has sanctioned Rs. 2 crore under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Development Project and Rs. 2.42 crore under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project for undertaking repair of roads damaged by digging trenches for laying underground sewage pipeline.

The second phase of work would be taken up in areas left out during the initial survey. The first phase of work was originally scheduled to be completed by March 2012. The project was expected to benefit 10,986 units, including 9,942 individual households.

Contract for execution of the work was signed on November 8, 2010, but the project progressed at a snail’s pace. The scheme gathered pace after the public made repeated representations to the administration about the hardships faced by them because of battered roads. The arterial Senthurai Road had become out of bounds for buses and people, especially students, had to walk from their educational institutions and home to reach the bus stand, located a few km away.

Collector E. Saravanavelraj, who inspected the infrastructure development work undertaken on Muniappar Temple Street and V. O. C. Street on Tuesday, said that 86 per cent of the underground drainage work had been completed in Ariyalur. About 40 per cent of the work on the sewage treatment plant was over. The plant would come up with a capacity to treat four millions litres of sewage daily.

Work on providing basic facilities, streetlights and drinking water connections, had been taken up at a cost of Rs. 4.31 crore in 2012-13. Twelve out of 13 roads taken up for relaying at a cost of Rs. 2.68 crore had been completed, according to an official release.