Sewage Treatment Plant to be Opened on November 10.

The Rs. 23-crore sewage treatment plant at Sannidhanam will be inaugurated on November 10. Talking to Express, Sabarimala high-powered committee on infrastructure development and former chief secretary K Jayakumar said that the Chief Minister would dedicate the plant to the pilgrims. Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar will preside over the function. Travancore Devaswom Board president M P Govindan Nair will deliver the keynote address. TDB members Subhash Vasu and P K Kumaran, Devaswom secretary Jyothilal and Devaswom commissioner C P Ramaraja Prema Prasad will offer felicitations.

Jayakumar said with the commissioning of the plant that has the capacity to treat five million litres per day, the pollution of Pampa river at source could be prevented. The plant is implemented by technocrat-turned contractor Viswanath Menon of Hyderabad Vasco Environmental. Jayakumar said the plant, was equipped with state-of-the-art biotechnology and its trial run had already begun and would be fully operational before the commencement of pilgrim season on November 16.

Jayakumar said that work on the six new queue complexes was fast progressing and would be operational before the forthcoming pilgrim season. Built at a cost of Rs. 2 crore each, the queue complexes could accommodate 3,000 at a time, Jayakumar said. With the commissioning, the number of queue complexes has gone up to 10, he said. The construction of two additional water storage tanks with a capacity of 20 lakh litres each was nearing completion, Jayakumar said.

A new toilet complex comprising 200 toilets near Malikappuram will be ready for commissioning before the upcoming pilgrim season.


THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS