CHENNAI/VELLORE: A day after Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made the announcement, works have begun to bring 10 million litres per day (MLD) of water from Jollarpettai to Chennai. The Metro Water board has submitted a detailed proposal to Southern Railway and the TWAD Board has begun laying pipeline to supply the water to rakes.
Senior officials allayed fears of Vellore facing a scarcity due to the new initiative. “The 10 MLD will come from the Vellore Combined Drinking Water Supply Scheme, which draws water from Cauvery in Mettur,” a senior TWAD Board official told Express. “While we can draw up to 160 MLD from Mettur, the volume being taken for the Vellore scheme is just 110-120 MLD. Since we are only taking excess water, the new initiative will not affect local population.”
On Saturday, a team of senior officials, led by the executive engineer of Metro Water, chief engineer of TWAD Board and Additional Divisional Engineer (ADE) of Southern Railway, conducted inspections in Jolarpettai to finalise the logistics. “We have put together a 15-member team, which will work round the clock, to lay a 2.5 km pipeline to take water to rail wagons. The work will be completed in a week,” said CN Maheswaran, managing director of TWAD Board.
It is learnt that 50 wagons of Southern Railway are expected to carry 2.5 MLD of water on each trip. The Metro Water has sent a proposal to the Southern Railway, requesting it to make four trips between Jolarpettai and Chennai to ensure the supply of 10 MLD, a source said. The water is likely to be offloaded near Villivakkam or Vyasarpadi, sent for treatment to a plant in Kilpauk and then distributed to Central and North Chennai. Sources say it will take a couple of weeks for the water supply to begin.