Vellore Corporation Starts Giving House Drainage Links Under Long-Delayed Project

Residents in Vellore town are finally getting underground drainage connections to their houses after a wait of more than ten years. Vellore Corporation has started giving out application forms to locals to begin the long-pending work.

Project Details

The massive project costs one thousand crore rupees and is funded through a national urban development scheme from two thousand sixteen and seventeen. The work is split into four parts, and officials are currently focusing on the second and third parts. Out of one lakh forty-one thousand homes in the town, about seventy-one thousand households will get connections under these two parts. Some of the neighborhoods included are Alamelumangapuram, Sathuvachari, Shenbakkam, Konavattam, Kaspa, and Velapadi. Each home connection will cost around seven thousand rupees on average, and residents can pay this amount in small parts added to their property tax.

Infrastructure

The total project builds about seven hundred fifty kilometers of sewer lines along with sixteen pumping and lifting stations and two big sewage treatment plants. Tricky parts of the work, such as thirty-two kilometers along the Chennai to Bengaluru highway service lane, sixteen railway crossing points, and seven kilometers of state highways, are already finished. Two treatment plants stand at Muthu Mandapam near the new bus stand and at Sarkar Thoppu near Katpadi to handle at least sixty point five million liters per day. Workers also built a long pipe bridge stretching six hundred fifty meters across the Palar river to move sewage from thirty-two wards, mostly in the old town, to the new plant near Katpadi. This bridge sits twenty feet above the river bed to stay safe from floods during the rainy season.

Context

Proper underground drainage systems are vital for growing towns to stop dirty water from flowing into open streets and rainwater drains. This prevents major health risks and keeps drinking water sources clean. Local bodies often take up such large sanitation works to improve public hygiene and manage wastewater properly.