Corpn to take over Siruvani water supply from TWAD

Coimbatore: The city corporation is preparing a proposal to take over the water pumping work at Siruvani reservoir from the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) to save money.Situated in Kerala, the reservoir is maintained by the irrigation officials there, while TWAD officials are involved in pumping water from the reservoir and supplying it to the city corporation.Siruvani is the second major water source for the city. The city corporation gets around 100 million litres per day (MLD) from the reservoir when the water level is adequate.Presently, the civic body pays 4 crore to TWAD every month for the pumping and water supply work. The civic body is now planning to take over the work to bring down the expenses. While the state government has approved the idea in principle, the civic body is preparing a proposal to be sent to the government.Addressing the media, corporation commissioner M Prathap said they were paying 11 to TWAD for every litre of water supplied by it. “While the actual cost incurred by TWAD in supplying water to us is just 6.5 per litre, the government has fixed the rate at 11. If we do the work ourselves, the cost could be brought down to 6 to 5 per litre. Thus, we can save around 2 crore every month.”