CHENNAI: Gone are the days when you could walk into a bus stand and pick up an ‘Amma Kudineer’ water bottle for Rs 10. The Transport Department has stopped selling the product across the State, and recently converted the sales outlets into time offices. However, the ruling DMK government continues to run ‘Amma’ canteens, which sell food at subsidised prices, and bear the name of former CM J Jayalalithaa.
Official sources said the production and sale of Amma Kudineer was stopped because the mineral water plant at Gummidipundi — the State’s only water bottle-producing plant — recently went non-operative. They added that the previous AIADMK regime had proposed to revamp the plant, but the present government put the plan in cold storage.
The ‘Amma’ brand of mineral water was launched on September 15, 2013, by Jayalalithaa to provide commuters affordable purified drinking water at bus stands and on long-distance buses. It was sold at `10 per litre, while other private brands charge Rs 20-25.
Amma Kudineer bottles were produced and distributed across Tamil Nadu by the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC). Initially, it was proposed to produce three lakh litres of water per day, but due to depletion of groundwater in the vicinity, the output was only 90,000-1.5 lakh litres.
In September 2019, water-bottle production was disrupted as mud and soil accumulated in the water filters. This reduced the Gummidipundi plant’s capacity by half, leaving it at just 45,000 litres per day. Since then, the sale of water bottles has reduced at bus stands.
In 2020, the AIADMK government explored its options to set up new water plants and planned to install a new machine at the Gummidipundi water plant. However, the proposal didn’t take off. And once the regime changed, the plans to revamp the mineral water plant only remained on paper.
A senior SETC official said the machines at the Gummidipundi water plant recently went dysfunctional, due to which production was suspended. “The water plant was not shut, but remains non-operational. We are waiting for the government’s instruction on this,” the official said.