Piped water supply to villages, towns, municipalities and the City Corporation in Vellore and Ranipet under the Cauvery Joint Drinking Water Supply Scheme will be resumed soon as the key water pipelines along the Palar river have been restored by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board.
At present, the TWAD Board officials said that final alignment work of these damaged pipelines along the Palar is being undertaken for the past few days after officials found a missing link in these pipelines. These pipelines connect areas in three districts — Tirupattur, Vellore and Ranipet — along the river, providing water supply to all local bodies in these limits for more than two decades.
“Due to the restoration work of the damaged pipelines, water supply is being done through tanker lorries to residents by respective local bodies as a stop-gap measure. Piped water supply will be resumed in a week,” a TWAD official said.
It was during the November floods that extensive damage was caused to water pipelines along the river covering Tirupattur, Vellore and Ranipet districts. Most of these pipelines were laid below the causeways and also along the bund of the river. These causeways, connecting Vellore and Tirupattur districts through border towns such as Ambur and Katpadi, were also damaged due to rain that resulted in the discharge of excess rainwater into the Palar and its tributaries — Poonai and Agaram — flooding areas along the river in Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupattur districts.
Since then, affected residents in more than 40 villages in key border towns like Ambur, Gudiyatham, Pallikonda, K.V. Kuppam, Katpadi, Wallajah and Nemili in these three districts had to depend on tanker lorries for water supply to meet their domestic needs every day.
Officials said that 600 metres of the pipelines below Madhanur causeway in Tirupattur, 15 metres in Pachai Kuppam, 60 metres in Virinchipuram (Vellore) and 200 metres in Poigai (Vellore) along the river were damaged due to last year’s rain. Further, the main pipelines between Pallikonda and Gudiyatham; Virudhampattu and Katpadi in Vellore were also damaged.
These damaged pipelines were being restored with the trail tests that were done on Tuesday by the TWAD Board.
Causeways restored
Earlier this month, major causeways along the river were restored. The Madhanur causeway in Tirupattur district connects Ambur with around 20 villages in Gudiyatham region. The causeway, which is 90 metres long and 6 metres wide, was used by mofussil buses, lorries, cars and two-wheelers.
Around 40 metres of the causeway was damaged due to rain. Likewise, Virinjipuram and Poonai causeways connect big towns like Katpadi and Walljah in Vellore and Ranipet districts respectively. Both these causeways come within the limits of Vellore. Of the total length of 80 metres, 62 metres of Virinjipuram causeway was damaged and the State Highways department restored it.
