The Times of India 04.09.2013
Municipal corporation gears up for trial run of round-the-clock water supply
COIMBATORE: Although it seemed a distant possibility a few months ago, the city municipal corporation is gearing up to implement the 24X7 water supply project in all 60 wards within old corporation limits in the city. The civic body will conduct an initial trial run in a chosen area, by supplying water for 24 hours without a break to identify the various modalities involved in the project. Based on this exercise, the basic benchmark statistics will be set, when the corporation starts executing the uninterrupted water supply project in the coming months. The corporation is expected to select ward no 23 in RS Puram to conduct the trial run which is expected to last for 30 days.
"We are planning to a conduct trail run by supplying water to RS Puram locality. This will be used as a case study before we start implementing the project on a larger scale. We now receive adequate water from Siruvani and thus can commence the trial run soon," said G Latha, commissioner, Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.
The state government has already given the green signal for the supply scheme based on the Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by the corporation. The main objective of carrying out the trail run is to ascertain whether the existing main supply line will be able to withstand the pressure and to ensure even water pressure across supply lines. Maintenance issues like possible leakages, valve corrosion other engineering issues will also be recorded and studied during this initial trial run before the corporation starts implementing the project in a full-fledged manner. The total cost of the project is expected to be around Rs641cr. Initially, the corporation had shortlisted Bharathi Park, Race Course and RS Puram as the three possible locations to carry out the trial operation. But it was later decided to carry it out in RS Puram locality which receives Siruvani water.
"It will be a learning exercise for our men involved in the project. The flow meters, valves and other components will be monitored," said a senior corporation official.
As per the project report of the corporation, the 24x7 water supply project will require major infrastructure components, including 24 new service reservoirs for Pillur scheme and five additional ones for Siruvani supply in the corporation limits. At the moment there are 29 service reservoirs for Pillur and 12 for Siruvani managed by the corporation. A water forecast conducted by the city corporation while preparing the project report had revealed that by 2029 the total water demand of Coimbatore city will be 226.583 million litres per day after taking into account commercial, domestic and industrial demand compounded with an expected 15 percent supply loss. As per the official estimate about 1122 km of water supply line runs through the old corporation limits.
