The Hindu 08.04.2013
Residents to benefit from improved water supply soon
Residents of Kavundampalayam, Vadavalli and Veerakeralam will see an improvement in water supply in the days to come. The reason: the Corporation has a dedicated power supply facility in place for its pumping station at Kavundampalayam.
Sources in the civic body said that the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) had completed the work of transmitting power to the pumping station from a feeder at Kavundampalayam to power the motors there.
As of Sunday, the Tangedco was in the process of giving finishing touches. It was likely to provide supply by Wednesday.
The Corporation had spent close to Rs. 49 lakh to provide direct supply from the feeder to the pumping station.
Once commissioned, the facility would help the Corporation save on diesel, the sources said and pointed out that it spent 100 litres diesel a day to ensure steady supply of Bhavani water to the residents of the three areas, which were until recently three different local bodies.
The Kavundampalayam-Vadavalli Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme had three pumping stations — the first one in Nellithurai that was attached to the head works, the second one in Veerapandi Pirivu and the third in Kavundampalayam.
The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board that managed the water supply distribution already enjoyed a direct supply from feeder to the Nellithurai pumping station. But this was not enough to supply adequate water because the stations at Veerapandi Pirivu and Kavundampalayam suffered power cuts.
The Coimbatore Corporation, the beneficiary of the scheme, wanted to solve the problem by providing continuous power supply for the two stations. It installed generator at the Veerapandi Pirivu station after it was told that it was not possible to provide feeder supply.
It explored the possibility of feeder supply for the Kavundampalayam station and after found it was feasible, gave Rs. 49 lakh to the Tangedco for laying an underground cable to transmit power 24X7.
With the system in place, the Corporation would be able to increase the frequency of Bhavani water to the residents of Kavundampalayam, Vadavalli and Veerakeralam. At present, the civic body supplied water once in six to seven days. The sources said that this was possible because the Corporation would get the designed quantity of over 10 million litres a day (mld), which was not possible during power cuts. The water supply due to power outage was only around six mld.
