Chennai: To manage the water needs of Chennai, another train with 50 wagons ferrying 25 lakh litre water chugged off from Jolarpettai railway station this morning. Starting from today, the city would have two trains engaged for supplying water.
It may be noted that the water-starved metropolitan city is receiving water from Jolarpettai via trains since 12 July. Reports state that it is the excess water supplied under the Cauvery drinking water scheme that is diverted to the city. To facilitate the project, pipes for three-km between Mettusakkarakuppam and Jolarpettai have been laid. The test-run was held on 10 July and a snag was detected due to which minor delay was experienced. Following which, the faults in pipelines was fixed. In the meanwhile, the Railways flagged off green signal and from 12 July, the project officially kicked-off.
Sources state that each wagon carried 70,000 litre and following the direction received from the Railway officials to limit it to 50,000 litre on the account of experiencing difficulties in operating the train. Abiding it, 20,000 litre from every coach was pumped out. After a 4.30 hour journey from Jolarpettai, the vehicle reached Villivakkam. The water will reportedly be pumped to Kilpauk water works to be treated from where it will later be distributed to the rest of the city. It is learnt that the first train was brought from Rajasthan that were attached to the train to carry the water.