Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

VS inaugurates JICA treatment plant

SWITCHING ON:Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan activating the inlet valves of the filter beds at the 74-mld water treatment plant constructed at Aruvikkara in the city on Tuesday. Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran, Minister for Law M. Vijayakumar, Minister for Labour P.K. Gurudasan, Minister for Civil Supplies C. Divakaran and Kerala Water Authority managing director Susan Jacob are also seen.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurated a 74-mld water treatment plant built at Chithirakkunnu, Aruvikkara, with financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) at a function organised here on Tuesday to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.

Mr. Achuthanandan first drove to the plant where he symbolically ‘switched on' the functioning of the six filter beds at the plant and later, at the headquarters campus of the Kerala Water Authority, gave away the first pot of ‘JICA water' to Sreeja of Pappanamcode and then to Saraswathi of Nemom panchayat.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Achuthanandan said the project had undergone many trials and tribulations before construction work began in March 2007. The first phase of the JICA scheme being implemented in Thiruvananthapuram had been designed keeping in mind the requirements of the city for the next 25 years. Once this phase of the scheme was fully commissioned in 2011, the city's water supply scheme would be able to generate 284 million litres a day, he said.

He said the Department of Water Resources had, over the past four years, been able to put in place 47 big schemes and 190 small schemes. It had been able to provide water to 10 lakh more people. As many as 115 water supply schemes were executed under the tsunami rehabilitation package. Thirty-six rural schemes that had been stalled for want of funds were revived with aid from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. This year, 100 schemes had been initiated to benefit 20 lakh families, he added.

In his presidential address, Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran termed the JICA scheme a “fourth anniversary gift” of the LDF government. He complemented Degremont, the company that set up the treatment plant; L&T, which laid the pipelines; IVRCL, which set up the reservoirs; and Electrosteel, the contractor for the scheme's distribution network; for their role in making the scheme a reality.

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