By Express News Service VELLORE: Amid hiccups and delays, the trial run of pumping water through the newly laid 3.2 km pipeline that will play a big part in ferrying Cauvery water to crisis-ridden Chennai was held at Jolarpet in Vellore district on Wednesday. At around 12 pm, water was flushed through the pipeline running from the underground storage tank at Mettusakkarakuppam to Pudur where the scour valve is located. “Water is being flushed into the pipeline from Mettusakkarakuppam pump house at the rate of 4,200 litres per minute up to the scour valve in Pudur,” a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board told Express. After completing flushing the pipeline between the pump house and the scour valve, a similar activity will be carried out between the scour valve and the filling point at the railway yard in Parsampet on the Jolarpet railway station premises. The entire stretch covers an area of 3.2 km. Officials monitoring the works stated that transporting water to Chennai through wagons will begin later in the day. “As of now, we are ready to pump water to the filling point in the railway yard. It is up to the Railway officials to decide the time of filling wagons and moving them to Chennai. We are sure it will be done today itself,” an official camping in Jolarpet said. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced on June 21 that water would be ferried to quench the thirst of parched Chennai and sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs 65 crore. Top officials of TWAD, Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Railways inspected the underground storage tank, pump house and the yard the next day. Subsequently, a project report was prepared and submitted to the concerned top authorities of the government before launching the spade work on June 27. The pipe laying works were started on July 3 and completed early on July 10, sources said. The trial run was actually planned to be held on Tuesday. However, officials had to face certain problems particularly in laying the pipe under a culvert which was located on private land. Sources said the landowner had raised objections and the issue was only resolved late into the night on Tuesday. During the trial run of flushing the pipeline, leakage was noticed at certain points and was later plugged by the labourers. It will take more than three hours to fill 50 wagons with 2.5 million litres of water. The original plan was to move 10 million litres of water to Chennai every day. However, only 50 wagons are available with the Railways as of now. A few more may be roped in to carry out the job. The sources said two engines with 50 wagons each may move up and down round the clock to make four trips a day to ferry water which will be decanted at Villivakkam from where it will be pumped to the treatment centre at Kilpauk before being flown down the pipes to reach the households. Of the total amount of Rs. 65 crore, Rs 54.4 crore is being paid to the Railways to transport the water. For each trip, Rs. 8.6 lakh is to be paid for the Railways. The high cost of transportation has raised many an eyebrow. It was also discussed at a high level meeting of top officials. But given the prevailing crisis in Chennai, they see no other option, the sources noted. A team of three executive engineers, five assistant executive engineers and four assistant engineers have been pressed into service for the project, besides 200 labourers working day and night.

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