The Hindu 27.07.2009
Bursts in drinking water mains, cause for concern
Special Correspondent
| Attributed to use of poor quality of AC pipes used in scheme |
— Photo: R. Ashok 
Persistent problem: Mayor S. Sujatha and Corporation Commissioner T.T. Balsamy inspecting repair works being undertaken on a burst water main near Ariyamangalam on Sunday.
TIRUCHI: Frequent bursts in drinking water mains of the Golden Rock Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme remain a major worry for the Tiruchi Corporation.
In the latest incident, a large segment of the city population, covering residential colonies in Ariyamangalam, Melakalkandarkottai, Sangiliandapuram, Senthaneerpuram, Subramaniapuram, Ponmalaipatti, Airport, Khajamalai, Crawford, Anbu Nagar, Krishnamurthy Nagar and neighbouring areas have gone without water supply for the past two days. Importantly, water is supplied to the Tiruchi Central Prison through these lines.
About 15 to 19 million litres of water are pumped through the line everyday and distributed to residents through more than a dozen overhead water tanks.
The four-laning work along the Tiruchi-Chennai bypass road has only aggravated the problem in recent times.
The burst reported on Friday was at a critical junction near Ariyamangalam, where a fly-over is being constructed. The burst occurred beneath the retaining walls being built for the approach road to the fly-over and the repair proved to be tough task for the corporation engineers.
Metal sheets
Temporary support with metal sheets had to be provided to prevent the sinking of the retaining wall when a trench was dug up to carry out the repair.
The task was accomplished with the help of engineers of the National Highways Authority of India. Though the work, replacement of a two- metre pipe and a couple of joints, took just about a couple of hours, the officials were engaged in putting in place the support structure for the retaining walls till this afternoon.
Only after this could the engineers turn their attention to repair of the pipeline.
Corporation officials said that the work would be completed and pumping of water would resume by tonight. Mayor S.Sujatha and Commissioner T.T.Balsamy inspected the work for the second consecutive day on Sunday.
Meanwhile, officials said work on replacing the pumping mains of the water scheme in a couple of more reaches would be taken up soon.
Partial replacement
The frequent bursts were attributed to the poor quality of AC pipes used for the scheme, commissioned in 1996. The civic body has been spending substantial sums every time a burst occurs.
The pipeline was partially replaced for a 2.7 km stretch between Ariyamangalam and Senthaneerpuram with the NHAI bearing the cost and the corporation has spent another Rs.56.30 lakh to replace the AC pipelines with ductile iron pipes in another reach for a length of about 315 metres.
The NHAI has to replace the pipelines on another stretch from Ariyamangalam. This apart, the corporation has called for tenders to replace another segment of the pipeline, running for about 825 metres between the KRT Complex and Sanjeevi Nagar, at a cost of Rs.70 lakhs.
Residents, dependent on the scheme for their everyday needs, could heave a sigh of relief only when the distribution mains of the scheme were fully replaced.
