VELLORE: Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) Managing Director C.N. Maheshwaran flagged off the first water tank special train, with 50 wagons, from the Jolarpet railway station at 7.20 am on Friday.
The water will be decanted at Villivakkam, Chennai, before being pumped to treatment plants at Kilpauk.
It will then be distributed to households in the crisis-hit Chennai.
Earlier on June 21, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made the announcement to ferry water from Jolarpet to Chennai, and sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs 65 crore, as the state capital had been reeling under severe water shortage.
As per the plan, every day 10 million litres of water will be moved to Chennai by train through two rakes with 50 wagons carrying a total of 2.5 million litres.
The trains will be operated up and down round the clock to make four trips in a day, in order to complete the ferrying of 10 million litres of water, sources said.
A 3.2 km underground pipeline has been laid to transfer the water from Mettuchakkarakuppam, where the pump house is located to Jolarpet station.
The water will be then pumped onto fill the wagons, the sources said.
On Wednesday, a trial run was conducted to check the flushing of water to the newly-laid pipeline from Mettuchakkarakuppam to Pudur, during which a leakage point was noticed near the yard.
However, the officials carried out the spade work thereof, allowing the water to flow through the pipeline to fill the wagons.
The source of water is being drawn from Cauvery under Vellore Drinking water scheme.