TWAD scheme all set to meet water needs of IIM, BDU

Dedicated pipelines laid by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) for a combined drinking water scheme from Cauvery has helped three major educational institutions on Pudukkottai Road to meet their water needs.
All the three institutions, Bharathidasan University (BDU), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Trichy and University College of Engineering, Anna University on Pudukkottai Road were relying on water from bore wells..
The project that took off in 2015 was completed in February this year. All the three intuitions are getting water on a trial basis and the institutions are working on creating infrastructure to store and take water to all the departments.
Depletion of water level over the years has forced University College of Engineering, BIT Campus, Anna University, Trichy, to rely on tankers for water. Under this scheme, IIM Trichy is getting 2.5 lakh litres of water whereas University College of Engineering, Anna University and BDU are getting 2 lakh litres of water each.
IIM Trichy moved to the new campus only recently and their water needs are growing with their increasing demand. There are close to 600 people including students and faculty members on the permanent campus which has a built up area of 1,15,800sqm spread over 125 acres of land on the Trichy-Pudukkottai highway.


“Our strength is expected to grow in the upcoming years and water from this scheme would be sufficient to meet the increasing needs,” says Bhimaraya Metri, director, IIM Trichy while adding that the combined scheme was helpful in bringing down the overall cost as all the three institutions are sharing the expense.
“With a total of 4,500 students of which 2,900 students in five hostels on the campus, water scarcity was a major issue especially during summer,” said T Senthil Kumar, dean, University College of Engineering, BIT Campus, Anna University. “We have been meeting out water needs with the 10 bore wells on the campus. However, water level goes down during summer, which makes us rely on private suppliers for water,” he said. There are 45 departments in the college.
Though there are 22 bore wells on the 165 acre Bharathidasan University campus over 10 become defunct during summer.
“The BDU is located in a very dry region and it is challenging to meet the water needs during summer. The scheme would help us save the groundwater table by reducing the use of bore wells,” he said.

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