First 50-wagon water train from Vellore arrives in Chennai
12 Jul 2019
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The first 50-wagon train carrying 2.5 million litres of water from Vellore to parched Chennai arrived in the city this afternoon from Jolarpet railway station, while a second train carrying precious water for the city is expected to arrive later in the day.
The water brought in railway tankers will be piped to Kilpauk Water Works for distribution across the city, a senior Metro Water official said.
A senior official of the Southern Railway said the water wagon would by arriving at Villivakkam where State Ministers would be present to receive the train.
The Chennai Metro Water has set a target of ferrying 10 million litres per day.
While the two trains bring a total of 5 million liters of water to the state capital, railway officials said, "Based on slots available for movement of these trains the capacity could go up."
The much-awaited train transporting water from Vellore to Chennai was flagged off on Friday morning from Jolarpet station.
On Wednesday, workers were busy connecting the 400 mm pipeline laid between the tracks to other pipelines. It has been laid for a distance of nearly 700 metres to match the length of the train.
Two trains with 50 wagons each have been commissioned for the purpose. While one will be stationed near Jolarpet, another will be housed at the Avadi railway yard, according to sources.
Southern Railways will charge Chennai Metro Water Rs 7.5 lakh for each trip. Officials say the trains took around five hours to reach Chennai's Villivakkam, 220 km away.
A 3.5-km-long pipeline was laid connecting Jolarpet railway station with a pumping house. A trial run of the supply line was carried out on Wednesday.
Around 100 pipe lines installed near the railway tracks in Villivakkam would be used to shift 2.5 million litres of water from the wagons to a treatment plant, of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, news agency PTI reported.
"After treatment it would be sent for distribution. This arrangement has been made for the next six months until the (advent of the) north-east monsoon," PTI quoted the official as saying.
The Tamil Nadu government has allotted Rs65 crore for this project.
The water brought to Chennai by train, however, will not increase supply to Chennai, rather it may ease pressure on existing supply and ease pressure on the state government to ensure a minimum supply of 525 million litres to residents against the requirement of 830 million litres a day.
