Relief as water arrives from Vellore

CHENNAI: Relief for water-starved Chennai, though minimal, arrived by train on Friday. Fifty wagons with 2.75 million litres from Jolarpet arrived at the dedicated track near Villivakkam railway station around noon.
Sources said that after the water special arrived, top Union government officials directed Southern Railway to wait for the state government ministers before unloading and the train was sent to Tondiarpet yard.After an ‘official function’, the pumping began around 4pm finished close to 10pm.
A senior Metrowater official said the state government’s request to Southern Railway to help transport 11 million litres of water a day (MLD) from Jolarpet to Chennai prompted the Chennai division to make arrangements to run the water specials over the 200 km.
Two Bogie Tank wagons (BTPN) rakes, each with the capacity to load 55,000 litres in each wagon for a complement of 2.75 million litres in each water special, were made at the wagon repair shop at Kota in Rajasthan. The Kota workshop, primarily tasked with making wagons for transporting edible oil, began work on the water wagons on June 25 after a rake arrived from Karchhia in Vadodara, also in Western Railway. The wagons were subjected to a steam cleaning process for eight hours, freeing them of the sediments of edible oil. All the mechanical fittings were opened and cleaned mechanically and manually. Sedimentary remains were scratched.
Dedicated loading and unloading facilities were installed both at Jolarpettai and Villivakkam jointly by TWAD (Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, Government of Tamil Nadu) and Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. Three pumps of 50HP capacity were installed to complete unloading. One pump reserved as standby. Water unloading facilities were completed at Villivakkam with a 600m-pipeline to carry the water to Kilpauk water works through a culvert for treatment.
Two dedicated electrical engines in a push-pull formation were attached to each water special to enable the railways to cut down on engine turnaround and wagon turnaround time. Metrowater had made elaborate security and lighting arrangements at Villivakkam to make the operations safer, said the official.