Work on replacing the 4.8 km-long water pipelines on all four Mada Streets around the Arunachaleswarar temple and the town is nearing completion.
Accompanied by S. Murali and K. Raghuraman, Divisional Engineer (DE) and Assistant Director (AD), State Highways (Tiruvannamalai), Collector B. Murugesh inspected the works. He directed municipal officials to speed up the work.
“Entire work, including the remaining 400 metres of pipeline, will be completed by May-end. Subsequently, replacement of existing bitumen roads in the town into concrete stretches will be taken up by the State Highways,” N. Dhakshanamurthy, Commissioner, Tiruvannamalai municipality, told The Hindu.
This is the first time the pipelines are being replaced around the temple since they were laid in early 1970s. The centrally sponsored work, which is being executed by Tiruvannamalai municipality, will cost ₹3.34 crore under Central Grant Fund (CGF) 2017-18, would provide much relief to residents and devotees because at present, they depend on leaky water pipelines. Most of these pipelines are corroded over the years, resulting in seepage. At present, 754 households around the temple have water connections. The Underground Drainage (UGD) connections were given to 848 houses in these stretches. New pipelines are being laid along the existing ones in these streets by the municipality to ensure continuous water supply during the work. Once the new pipelines are laid, the old ones will be disconnected. Currently, the local body supplies 135 litres per person (capita) per day within its limits that have a UGD network. The new water pipelines will help consumers, including devotees, to get better water supply as the stretches also have public water taps.
Municipal officials said that there was a need for new pipelines around the temple and in the town and the State Highways received ₹15 crore to convert the existing bitumen roads into cement concrete stretches around the temple. Once these stretches are relaid, repairs on leakage along the old pipelines in these stretches cannot be attended easily as they have to break the new concrete stretches. As a result, new pipelines are being laid before the road work.
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