The Hindu 03.03.2010

Pilloor line cracks, water supply stopped

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: The supply of drinking water under the Pilloor scheme was stopped in the afternoon on Tuesday after a leak in the main line was detected at Kattan Hills.

Supervised by officials from the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, workers dug throughout the afternoon to reach the pipe and found that it actually had a large crack and it was not just a case of water leaking through any displaced joint.

The removal of the damaged pipe was expected to take nearly eight hours and the fixing of another pipe would take another eight to nine hours, water supply officials said.

Though the halt in the supply of water would enable cutting of the damaged pipe and welding its replacement in place, night time always slackened the pace of work, they said.

The works were expected to be completed in the early hours of Wednesday and water supply might be restored that evening, a press release from the water board said.

The supply in the city was stopped in the afternoon and Siruvani water would have to be provided if the works took more time to complete. The schedule of Pilloor water supply would remain hit for some areas over the next two to three days.

After resumption, it would be done first to areas that were to get supply on Tuesday. This would delay the supply by a day or two for the areas that expected normal supply on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Hindu 27.02.2010

Plan to implement two water schemes

—Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

Need:Construction of an overhead tank going on at Tamil Nagar under ward 27 of Tirunelveli Corporation.

The Corporation's plans to execute two major drinking water schemes for wards eight, nine and ten of Thatchanallur zone and wards 19, 26 and 27 of Melapalayam zone has brought happiness among the residents of these wards as they were craving for protected drinking water for the past several decades.

When the Corporation was formed on June 1, 1994, by merging Tirunelveli, Palayamkottai and Melapalayam municipalities, Thatchanallur town panchayat, Azhaganaeri, Vellakovil, Sernthimangalam, Palayam Kottur, Karaiyiruppu, Thimmarajapuram, V.M. Chathram, Melanaththam, Karuppanthurai, Kandigaipaeri village panchayats and parts of Reddiyarpatti, Nochchikulam, Thiruppanikarisalkulam and Narasinganallur panchayats, the population was only 3,68,550, which rose to 4,11,831 in 2001.

It is expected that the population would cross five lakh in 2015 and touch six lakh by 2030, which necessitates the local body to go for integrated mega drinking water projects in near future.

According to an index prescribed by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), Ministry of Urban Development, the local bodies should supply 135 litres of drinking water to residents and hence the Tirunelveli Corporation would require 6.75 crore litres in 2015 and 8.10 crore litres in 2030.

Schemes

When the Corporation was formed in 1994, it had only Kurukkuthurai (1961) and Kondaanagaram (1983) drinking water schemes of Tirunelveli Municipality and Manappadaiveedu - old scheme (1956) and Manappadaiveedu - new scheme (1976) of Palayamkottai Municipality. The Melapalayam Municipality had only Kondaanagaram drinking water scheme (1992) and the then Thatchanallur town panchayat was getting water from Tirunelveli Municipality. Naturally, all these schemes could not meet the drinking water requirements of the newly formed corporation, which implemented Thirumalaikozhunthupuram (Rs. 6.69 crore in 2000), Thatchanallur Phase I (Rs. 1.14 crore) KTC Nagar - V.M. Chathram Drinking Water Scheme (Rs. 3.78 crore) and Thatchanallur Phase II (Rs. 5.94 crore).

However, the Corporation is getting only 3.47 crore litres a day through its nine drinking water projects against its actual requirement of 5.73 crore litres forcing the Corporation to work on two more projects - for wards eight, nine and ten (at a cost of Rs. 4.51 crore) and for wards 19, 26 and 27 (on an outlay of Rs.18.15 crore) to augment the supply.