Thiruverumbur water scheme likely to get PWD nod in a week

The city corporation’s water supply improvement scheme (WSIS) to ensure piped potable water connection to five remote wards near Thiruverumbur is likely to get administrative nod within a week from the public works department (PWD) to drill a collector well on the Cauvery river bed.
With 70 per cent of the project completed, official sources said that the water scheme is likely to be commissioned by June 2019 and will come as a relief for residents of five wards (61 to 65).
During Trichy Corporation’s expansion in 2011, the urban local body (ULB) annexed Thiruverumbur town panchayat and four village panchayats - Papakurichi, Ellakudi, Keelakalkandarkottai, and Alathur. The localities which fall under wards 61 to 65 face acute shortage of water during summer.
Though the civic body supplies 4.6 to 5 million litres per day (MLD) of water purchased from TWAD to the localities besides supplying water through lorries and temporary tanks, local people are of the opinion that the civic body had set aside the need of Thiruverumbur. To overcome the challenge, the corporation with financial assistance from the German Development Bank (KfW) took up the works in June 2016 to supply water. As a part of the project, a source point was identified on the Cauvery bed near Melur falling under ULB’s jurisdiction.


"Though the requirement of five wards near Thiruverumbur lingers near 15 MLD, we have identified the water source through which a maximum of 27 MLD could be drawn to address future needs. We are awaiting the approval from PWD to commence the drilling works for the collector well," a senior official with the Trichy Corporation said.

With only the construction of the collector well on Cauvery river bed near Melur pending, the corporation said most of the works pertaining to installation of pipelines and overhead tanks (OHT) were completed to carry the water from source point to households. Out of the eight proposed OHTs with a capacity to store water varying from 1 to 38 lakh litres, five OHTs were completed.

"PWD’s approval is mandatory for sourcing any quantum of water more than 1 MLD from the river bed. We are confident of receiving the administrative sanction for the project in a week from PWD. Subsequently works will commence at the source point near Melur," the senior official added.
Once the works for drilling collector well starts, the entire process would take 1-1.5 years for commissioning.

Source