Pilloor Phase-II drinking water scheme approved

The city's first scheme under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission - Pilloor Phase-II drinking water scheme to supply 61.84 million litres a day - has been cleared by the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

Announcing this at the Coimbatore Corporation Council meeting on Friday, Mayor R. Venkatachalam said that the scheme would be implemented at a cost of Rs. 114 crore.

The Centre would provide 50 per cent grant and the State 20 per cent. The remaining 30 per cent of the cost would be met through loans Corporation Commissioner P. Muthuveeran told The Hindu over phone from NewDelhi after the scheme was cleared.

The Mayor said that the scheme would be implemented in one-and-a-half years. Daily supply would also be restored, he said. At present, the Corporation provided alternate day supply.

The city already had a supply of 65.97 mld from the Pilloor Phase-I scheme and 85 mld from the Siruvani scheme. But, with a number of multi-storeyed apartments and rising population, the corporation felt that only the new scheme could bail it out of trouble. The Commissioner said the scheme would take off soon. The Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board had initially set an implementation period of 36 months. It had said that a new intake well should be dug at the Pilloor Dam, 69 km north of the city.

As the corporation did not want the project to take more than three years to complete, it decided that the existing intake well could be used and the pumping facility upgraded. This would help complete the scheme in 18 months, the Commissioner said.

Originally, the Pilloor Phase-II scheme and revamp of the Siruvani scheme were planned at Rs. 166 crore. Now, these were being taken up as two different projects, the Commissioner said.

The mission insisted on 24-hour supply as a condition for funding drinking water schemes.



Source: The Hindu