TIMELY INTERVENTION: Managing Director of the Kerala Water Authority T.P. Mohanlal (middle) inspecting the pumps at the 72 mld treatment plant at Aruvikkara on Wednesday. Photo: S. Mahinsha

ARUVIKKARA: The 1,200 mm Cast Iron pipeline bringing water from the 72 mld treatment plant here to the Kerala Water Authority (KWA)'s reservoir at Peroorkada, Thiruvananthapuram, was on Wednesday converted from `gravity main' to a `pumping main' as an emergency step to reach more water to the city's distribution network.

This `conversion' was ordered by Managing Director of the KWA T. P. Mohanlal, during an inspection of the 72 mld treatment plant and pump houses on Wednesday morning. Mr. Mohanlal, who was accompanied by Deputy Chief Engineer (Vigilance) Abdul Kalam and Deputy. Chief Engineer S. Kumar, told The Hindu that the KWA plans to reach 20 million litres of water more on a daily basis to the Peroorkada reservoir.

This, he claimed, will solve the water shortage in almost all parts of the city serviced by that reservoir.

Maintenance ordered

Mr. Mohanlal also ordered KWA engineers here to immediately carry out the maintenance of one pump that was found to be overheating at the time of the inspection.

As a result of the conversion of the gravity main into a pumping main all 10 filter beds at the 72 mld treatment plant were made operational in the afternoon. Normally only eight beds are operated at a time, a KWA engineer, here, said. Moreover, three of the four pumps at the treatment plant were made operational since Wednesday afternoon. Normally only two of these pumps run at any given point of time.

Initially, the team of KWA engineers here were reluctant to effect pumping in the gravity line. They pointed out that there is a possibility of the line getting damaged owing to the sudden influx of water at enhanced pressure. However, the Managing Director said he was confident about the capacity of the Cast Iron line to withstand the added pressure. "I will take full responsibility if anything goes wrong. You just do what I ordered," he told the engineers here led by Executive Engineer V. Chandran. Mr. Mohanlal also wanted the pump operators at the treatment plant to be replaced.

"A comprehensive inquiry will soon be conducted into the operations at the Aruvikkara plants. Converting a line into a pumping main need not have waited for a visit from the Managing Director. It could have been done by the engineers here. Following the inquiry, appropriate action will be taken against officials found responsible for such lapses at Aruvikkara," Mr. Mohanlal said after the inspection.

By Wednesday evening the reservoir at Peroorkada recorded an additional influx of only three million litres of water. According to KWA officials it will take about two days for the additional influx of water to the Peroorkada reservoir to touch the 20 million litres mark.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail