Expected to bring the repeated pipe-bursts plaguing the capital city to an end, the much-touted new main water transmission pipeline from Aruvikkara to Peroorkada was commissioned on Wednesday, around a year after work on it began.
The new mild steel (MS) pipeline, which replaces the old pre-stressed concrete (PSC) 1,200-mm line, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the Kerala Water Authority’s (KWA) Peroorkada office.
“This will bring 86 mld of water from Aruvikkara reservoir and will benefit around ten lakh people in the city,” said KWA MD Asok Kumar Singh, who presented the project report.
As far as KWA projects go, this one was completed in record time, he said.
“The administrative sanction was received in March 2012, and work on the line began in January 2013,” Singh said. “The PSC pipeline, for instance, took seven years to complete while the JICA line took three,” he said.
The Rs 49.11-crore project was to lay 9.695 km of mild steel pipe from the Chittirakkunnu Aruvikkara water treatment plant to reservoirs in Peroorkada and Manvila after touching Irumba, Kalathukal, Kachani, Mukkola and Vazhayila. It was executed through James, M/s Lekshmi Civil Engineering Pvt Ltd.
Better Water Access
“Thiruvananthapuram will soon become the city with the most litre per capita per day (LPCD) in India with 280 litres,” said Water Resources Minister P J Joseph.
“Also, the KWA has put a Pipe Policy in place where only the quality of the pipe will be given priority rather than its cost.”
Echoing Joseph’s words, the Chief Minister further stated that new schemes were in place to increase the reach of piped water.
“At present, only 30 per cent people have access to pipe water,” said Chandy. “By 2016, the aim is to increase this figure to 70 per cent, which will again become 100 per cent by 2021,’’ he said.
DYFI Protest
Around 15 people, carrying DYFI placards, shouted slogans against the Chief Minister at the inauguration of the new MS pipeline saying that the roads at Aruvikkara that had been dug up for the pipeline were yet to be repaired.
This has made commuting difficult for the residents, the protestors claimed and demanded that the roads be repaired immediately. The protestors were taken into custody by the Peroorkada police.