The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Metrowater invites proposals for comprehensive sewer plan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Metrowater invites proposals for comprehensive sewer plan

K. Lakshmi

Feasibility report to cover 36 areas in the city and its fringes

CHENNAI: Metrowater has called for proposals to prepare a feasibility report to provide sewers for 36 suburban and developing areas in the Chennai Metropolitan area.

An official said that the Government has made Metrowater as the nodal agency for execution and maintenance of underground drainage schemes in the fringes of the city. The scheme will include 17 adjacent urban areas such as Ambattur and Avadi and eight distant urban areas including Pallavaram and small developing areas along the Old Mahabalipuram Road.

Metrowater will take over the maintenance of drainage system from the respective local bodies as per the government order.

Consultancy services will be made available to study and evaluate the existing underground sewer system in the suburban areas. The available infrastructure in the suburban areas and the projects taken up by local bodies would be surveyed to facilitate the implementation and maintenance of the drainage system, he added.

The feasibility report will also include developing a financial proposal covering aspects of collection, conveyance, treatment and disposal of sewerage for providing an integrated sewerage scheme in these areas. The report would also look into aspects of providing house service connections.

Tariffs

The report will have the financial possibility of implementing a scheme worked out by assessing residents' affordability in these areas and the present tariffs collected by the local bodies.

As it was necessary to have a common tariff structure in these suburban areas, the report will assess the proposed tariff structure by comparing the tariffs adopted across the country. Financial agencies such as the World Bank, the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited and the Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation will be approached for a tie-up with Chennai Metrowater to fund the project cost of the sewerage scheme to be taken up.

With some of the suburban areas requiring treatment plants individually for the sewage generated, the report will look into the feasibility of construction of such plants. It will also study the possibility of integrating the additional load of sewage generated by these areas along with the existing sewerage system for treatment in the Metrowater-owned sewage treatment plants, the official said.

The bidders for preparing the report will have to submit their proposals on or before July 20 and the technical bids would be opened on July 20. Other procedures would be decided after the preparation of the report, he added.

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