The ongoing Underground Drainage (UGD) work within Vellore City Corporation limits is on a fast track. Officials expect around 80% of the work to be completed by January 31, allowing the civic body to start providing service connections to households in areas where the work has been completed.
The multi-crore project, which was rolled out in 2019, comprises laying main sewer lines, pumping and lifting stations and sewage treatment plants, covering all 60 wards that has around eight lakh residents within the corporation limits.
A review meeting, led by Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar and Corporation Commissioner P. Ashok Kumar, discussed the progress of the drainage work. “By January-end, the work will be completed in 49 wards and in the remaining 11 wards it will be covered in the final phase of the project at a cost of around ₹190 crore,” Mr. Ashok Kumar, told The Hindu.
Divided into four phases, the project, which costs around ₹1,000 crore, covers laying of 750 km of sewer lines, construction of 16 pumping and lifting stations and two large STPs. In the first phase, sewer lines, pumping station and one STP were built, covering wards 1 to 10. Currently, phase-II and phase-III work is being taken up at a cost of ₹600 crore with sewer lines being laid for around 500 km within the corporation limits. Most of the residential and commercial areas have been covered, taking into account the monsoon, officials said.
Tricky areas, covering 32 km, on the service lane of Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 48), 16 railway crossing spots, State Highway stretches (7 km), 650 metres of pipe carrying bridge along the Palar river, which is maintained by the PWD, inaccessible narrow streets (14 km) need to be covered due to various stages of approval.
Of the total of 171 km , 145 km of the road length, mostly in residential areas, have been re-laid. In other words, over 800 stretches have been re-laid of the total of 937 roads since January. This is mainly to prevent inconvenience to residents during monsoon, officials said. Underground pipelines were also laid from streets to households for at least 70,000 service connections. Once the work in phase-II and III get completed by January-end, officials said that trial runs could be started to these new connections.
Meanwhile, Mayor Sujatha Anandakumar gave away new uniforms to 316 Corporation staff, including sanitary workers, health and mosquito control.
