Continuing its remedial efforts at the oil-leak contaminated areas of North Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) roped in experts from IIT-Madras for providing a long-term solution.
The team from IIT-M carried out the initial survey and testing at the polluted areas of Tondiarpet on Thursday.
According to official sources, TNPCB had approached IIT-M in order to get expert advice for a long-term remedy in purifying the groundwater from pollutants due to crude oil leak from underground petroleum pipelines.
On Tuesday, experts tried to remove the oil pollutants from groundwater through ‘oil absorbant’ technology. Since the pollutants are scattered extensively, the team of experts focused on the area where groundwater is highly-contaminated.
A resident of Varadharaja Perumal Temple Street, Velappan said, “Though the officials are trying to extract the pollutants from the groundwater, the problem of odour persists. The colour of water changes day by day since excessive amount of pollutants seeped into the groundwater.”
Already, the samples taken by TNPCB show that the groundwater has high level of contaminants due to oil leak. Availing the technical expertise of IIT-M was to hasten the remedial process.
A top official of the TNPCB said, “We have approached IIT-M since the expertise with the institute would help in not only identifying the nature of the problem, but also in fixing it in the long term. It will enable us to take appropriate remedial measures as early as possible. The team from IIT-M has visited the polluted areas and they too had taken samples. As soon as we receive the results from them, we will initiate further measures.”