The Vellore Corporation has planned to make use of the Supervisory Controlling and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system-based technology to streamline water distribution in the city. It would soon appoint a third party consultant to prepare a project formulation report in this regard. The Corporation council that met on February 20 approved the `50 lakh budget for this project.
A resolution in this regard had noted that while the council’s nod was obtained in this regard even on October 30, last year, and tenders were called from consultants, there was no positive response from bidders. So, the Corporation had to enhance the budget for the study project from the earlier `20 lakh to `50 lakh.
The need for such an arrangement was stressed at a consultative meeting organised by the Department of Local Administration in October 2013. The Local Administration Minister, had chaired the meet underlined the need for the corporation to undertake measures to study the existing water supply system and suggest ways to improve it, to ensure uniform supply throughout the corporation with the help of consultants. Accordingly, the corporation would seek the help of competent consultants to explore the SCADA arrangement for the operation of the water supply pumping stations within the Vellore Corporation limit. Besides, this system would also address the aspects of control and quality monitoring, quantity, levels and pressure, besides achieving service level benchmark parameters, said Corporation Commissioner Janaki Raveendran. Once the project outline was ready, the operational feasibility, environmental and social aspects, preparation of detailed design and cost estimates would be identified. Feasible measures to analyse the impact of investments and sustaining them would also be documented.
Besides exploring the avenues for revamping the existing distribution system, the project would study the ground-level storage reservoirs, elevated reservoirs, sumps and other water distribution systems and pipeline networks before suggesting additional requirement for strengthening the distribution infrastructure. It was also proposed to optimise the water distribution network using the technology of hydraulic modelling and integrated management information system.
The study would also assess the weakness in the existing system by measuring the flows and pressure at salient points in all the zones and comparing with the output of the network analysis. It would also identify measures for equitable distribution of water in the corporation with additional infrastructure and optimal utilisation of the existing facilities with proper zoning and block regulation of the entire distribution system. Water quality would also be a part of the project, which would check the existing disinfection system and suggest ways for improvement, to ensure safety of water supplied.