Smart Water, Smart City: Adyar Gets 24/7 Piped Supply!

Residents of Chennai’s Adyar zone will benefit from a round-the-clock piped water supply by late 2025, under a pilot project launched by Chennai Metrowater. The initiative aims to upgrade the current intermittent supply of 35 million litres per day (MLD) to 50 MLD.

A concessionaire will be appointed to implement the continuous drinking water supply system in Wards 169, 170, 173, 174, and 178 to 180. Smart water meters will be installed to enable usage-based billing. The project is modeled after the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO) system and follows a 2023 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed to replicate the model in Chennai’s Adyar and Kodambakkam zones.

Serving approximately 64,000 households across Adyar, Kotturpuram, Besant Nagar, Guindy, Ekkaduthangal, and Taramani, the network will span 377 km of pipelines. Unlike Odisha’s “Drink from Tap Mission” in Puri, the Chennai project focuses on ensuring continuous water supply, though not necessarily potable directly from the tap.

The project will be implemented under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), with the chosen concessionaire responsible for operations and maintenance for 15 years. IoT technology will be used to monitor supply, reduce losses, and divide the network into District Metered Areas (DMAs) for fair distribution. A similar project is already underway in Valasaravakkam.

News by Rahul Yelligetti.