Longer pipeline to ensure more water for city: The Hindu
Chennai: A high-efficiency water conveying system from Poondi to Red Hills will be inaugurated on Wednesday, ensuring availability of more water for Chennai.
Water from Satyamurti Sagar in Poondi, one of the storage points for the city, is being conveyed to Red Hills through a canal laid under the Krishna Water Supply project. Nearly 35 per cent of the water was being lost in transmission.
Now the wastage will be negligible as the conveyance system has a 47-km-long pipeline. A pump house, which can pump 100 million litres a day (MLD), and a sump with a capacity of three million litres have been built. The facility, costing Rs. 9.11 crore, has been built under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The Central and State governments have borne 35 per cent and 15 per cent of the cost respectively, and Metrowater has absorbed the rest. The work was carried out between January 2008 and August 2009. A significant feature of the project is that Metrowater can draw water even when the storage in Satyamurti Sagar touches dead storage level. It can thus tap even the last drop of water, says a senior official.
The availability of a 45-km-long pipeline laid about five years ago facilitated the work. It was being used to transfer water pumped from agricultural wells to Red Hills for eventual distribution in the city. Under the JNNURM project, Metrowater has extended the length of the pipeline by about 2 km.