Madipakkam to get desalinated water

Chennai: Water-starved Madipakkam is expected to soon receive water from the Nemmeli desalination plant under project Amruth, initiated by the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

In a recent meeting conducted by a few officials with residents' associations of Madipakkam, it was briefed that the operations would begin by next year.

“The scheme will to be implemented at an expense of Rs 67.5 crore with 33 per cent funded by Centre and remaining by the state. Under this scheme, an overhead tank with capacity of 50 lakh litres and underground tank with the capacity of nine lakh litres will be built this year on the land provided by corporation,” an official told the members of resident associations.

The water would be supplied from Nemmeli desalination plant that supplies 200 million litres of water per day to the city. For the purpose, storage points would be constructed in the area for distribution.

“The authorities are currently planning to construct the storage tanks on the land of the Chennai corporation near the Velachery main road and Kaiveli,” said a member from a resident association who chose to be anonymous.

Though numerous areas in the vicinity of Madipakkam availed water supply through the years, Madipakkam residents did not enjoy the fruit due to faulty administration and broken pipelines.

“Though numerous houses have pipelines attached, they are not supplied water and several complaints have gone in vain. At least now, the department must take this up seriously,” said P. Ramachandran, a resident of the area.  The project would also benefit areas in the vicinity including Ullagaram, Puzhithivakkam and Medavakkam where pipelines have been laid recently. The residents despite of remitting the water charges have been dependant on packaged drinking water for over a decade.