The officials of TWAD Board are in the process of obtaining permission from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Southern Railways to lay gravity pipe lines across the NH roads road and below the railway tracks at various spots in package II and III of the CWSS.
Under the project, pipelines along the NH roads for the entire stretch of for 308 km from Thottilpatti village near Mettur in Salem district to Arakkonam in Vellore district would be laid. “We have to lay the gravity pipelines across the roads maintained by NHAI and below the railway tracks that come under Salem, Bangalore and Chennai regions of the Southern Railways to bring water to the sumps and OHT in Vellore Corporation, 11 municipalities, five town panchayats and 944 habitations in Vellore district from the upstream of Cauvery River,” Superintending Engineer of TWAD, Vellore, H Rajamani Susilan told Express.
The officials of TWAD Board approached the Chief General Manager of NHAI at Chennai recently to obtain the permission to take up the pipe laying works in 86 kilo metres. “We have explained the importance of the project and have sought the permission of the NHAI to take up the work along and across the roads comes under NHAI. We got permission for 14 kms and hoping to get permission for the remaining 72 kilo metres,” he said and added that they were bypassing the NH in Ambur town and Vellore city and taking the pipe line along the Palar riverbed for 28 kms to avoid confrontation from the public in acquiring land.
The officials have also submitted 21 proposals to the Railways in connection with the project. “The officials of Railways and TWAD Board have already completed joint study of 14 sites of the proposed 21 sites for laying pipe lines across the railway tracks. The TWAD Board has also paid Rs 72 lakh to NH to lay pipe line across NH roads,” Collector P Sankar said.
The officials were also on the process of getting the nod of the NH department to take up the CWSS project work for a stretch of 12 kms in package III and 2.5 km in package II. “We are hoping to get the permission from the NH very soon,” Susilan added.
The acquisition of land at four sites for constructing 90-lakh litre capacity sumps at Komburan Kattu, Palakannur, V Muthampatti and Kadathur under package I of the project was also on the verge of completion. “The site at Komburan Kattu and Palakannur are government lands and the construction has started. The government has also passed an order to take over the site at V Muthampatti for the project, while acquiring the land at Kadathur is on the process,” he further said.