After the success of Ammas Canteen, now Ammas Water.
In a bid to ensure quality and affordable drinking water to the poor and middle class people, the Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu is set to launch nine 'Amma Mineral Water' production units across the state that would offer one litre bottle priced at Rs 10. These units, to be established by the state transport corporations, would make available one litre of mineral water packed in bottles at Rs 10 each, ensuring safe water and reducing to some extent the financial burden of the people, Chief Minister J Jayalalitha said in a statement here.
The government initiative would be a boon to the people, especially the Chennaites who were left in the lurch by the recent strike by packaged drinking water firms after the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board shut down 92 manufacturing units found operating without licence. Jayalalitha, who is fondly called by her party cadre as "Amma", said that in the first phase, a production unit would be established in suburban Gummidipoondi with a capacity of three lakh litre per day and necessary equipment would be procured by the road transport corporation.
The water bottles would be made available in buses plying in long distance routes, at mofossil bus terminus and bus terminals here, Jayalalitha said. She said the transport corporations would sell a litre of bottled water at Rs 10 as against Rs 15 by the Railways and Rs 20 by private players. After the official launch of the first unit on the occasion of AIADMK legend and late Chief Minister C N Annadurai's birth anniversary on September 15, nine more water production units would be established across the state, she said. The strike by over 200 mineral water companies in Chennai left the residents thirsty as most of the households depend on these bubble-top water cans, other than the supply from Chennai Corporation.
