Madurai Mayor, Corporation Commissioner meet Theni Collector for drinking water project for city

The Madurai Mayor Indrani Pon Vasanth and Corporation Commissioner K J Praveen Kumar met Theni District Collector R V Shajeevana in Theni district on Thursday.

According to Corporation officials, the Mayor and the Commissioner visited the Lower Camp from where the Corporation had proposed a mega plan to draw water from the Periyar river and treat it at Pannaipatti and distribute through pumping stations to all the wards in Madurai City.

For this project, the Asian Development Bank is funding ₹1653.21 crore under the AMRUT scheme.

Officials, who accompanied the Mayor and the Commissioner inspected the works being undertaken at different points. The PWD is undertaking the construction of a Pump House in Lower Camp, while laying steel pipelines was going on at Theni, Gudalur Main Road, Pudupatti, Uthamapalayam and Chinnamanur respectively.

The Mayor appealed to the officials to expedite the works at the earliest.

Later, they met Ms Shajeevana and explained about the work-in-progress and among others, officials said and added that the untreated water is collected at Pannaipatti. After treatment, the water is carried through pipelines to Madurai covering about 55 kms.

While all the 100 wards in Madurai City would get potable water, in the above scheme, a total of 89 wards including 32 in the newly added wards and another 57 wards in Madurai Central parts would get the Periyar water.

The works were going on in five different stages and the Mayor had recently informed the council meeting that 70 % of works were completed.

The AIADMK councillor and leader of the party, in the council, Solai Raja had raised apprehensions and said that the authorities may not be able to dedicate the project by November as per the Local Administration Minister K N Nehru’s announcement in the Assembly.