The Tiruchirapalli Corporation is showing the way in Tamil Nadu on efficient water management and in keeping a tab on ‘unaccounted’ water distribution flow.
It is the first Corporation in the State to install automated flow meters that keeps sending information to engineers and chief engineers monitoring from a control room on the flow of water across the city.
The corporation has installed the water flow meters in 61 locations. These meters check the water level at a specific place and also provides analytical measurements to understand the quality of water, said Sajiv Nath, Managing Director, Endress+Hauser (India) Pvt Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss major Endress+Hauser.
While managing water in Europe is well organised, it has just started in India. The company has installed the meters in Tiruchirapalli, he said.
The flow meters also check for leakages in pipelines. It also checks the quantity of water pumped in from the source, which could be a river, and the quantity of water pumped out after the treatment plant, he said.
The company’s instrumentation process tracks the water flow right from the source to the final mass distribution point. Every day 82 million litres of water is being treated, he said.
Water is now an essential commodity that needs to be managed properly. Various state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, are looking at flow meters.
The mandate for the company from the Tiruchirapalli Corporation was to automate and measure the reliability of water distribution. The company has done projects similar to Tiruchirapalli in Delhi and Maharashtra. There is 22-25 per cent saving using the water flow meters, he said.
According to Klaus Endress, CEO, Endress+Hauser AG, India is an ‘extremely well performing’ market for the company, which has invested around Rs 200 crore in setting up its plant in Aurangabad. The €1.7 billion Swiss company has nearly 6,000 customers in India. Its clients include Reliance, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, BHEL and Chennai Petroleum. It competes with companies such as ABB and Honeywell in this market.
The company enjoys a 15 per cent share in the instrumentation process automation sector, which is pegged at over Rs 1,000 crore. The Aurangabad plant exports the products to South East Asian countries, South Africa and Australia, he said.