Pallavaram to get smart water meters

Soon, the residents of Pallavaram will be charged to get piped water as the municipality is planning to introduce smart meters to measure the amount of water they use and to prevent wastage.

The move, according to a municipality official, has been taken to prevent the wastage of water in future as one of the major suburbs of Chennai is reeling under the water scarcity.

“Presently we are collecting Rs 50 per month from each of the houses in the municipality to provide water supply. After the installation of smart meters, we will charge for every 1,000 litres of water,” the official said.

However, the official refused to explicit the charges to be collected from the residents and said that they are in the process of fixing the rates. According to the official, the smart metre concept in Pallavaram is similar to the project proposed for T Nagar. The Greater Chennai Corporation, under the Smart City Mission, has already floated tenders to implement the smart metre for piped water supply in T Nagar.

In another development, the municipality is set to carry out the day-to-day water supply. “Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) and Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) are supplying drinking water to Pallavaram. TWAD supplies water taken from Palar River and CMWSSB supplies water drawn from Chembarambakkam lake. In the meantime, CMWSSB is implementing various projects at a cost of Rs 99.95 crore and after the completion of the works, the responsibility will be given to us,” the official added.

Meanwhile, Pallavaram municipality has initiated steps to tap water from abandoned quarries in Kutcheri Malai, Tiruneermalai and Trisulam as the water supply to Pallavaram is down to 85-lakh-litre per day against the daily the requirement of 290 lakh litres (29 MLD) owing to the scarcity.

“We are testing the water quality, technology to treat the water and infrastructure to be developed to tap water from the quarries. We will also get 30 MLD from new desalination plant being proposed and 18 MLD from Chembarambakkam in future,” he said.