WRD has taken up the Rs330-crore reservoir project on 1,495 acres of land
Amidst protests by villagers, the water resource department (WRD) is going ahead with the creation of a reservoir by linking two water bodies in Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai in Tiruvallur to supply drinking water to the city
Chennai: Amidst protests by villagers, the water resource department (WRD) is going ahead with the creation of a reservoir by linking two water bodies in Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai in Tiruvallur to supply drinking water to the city. The work on the new reservoir will be completed by May next year, says a WRD official. The WRD has taken up the Rs330-crore reservoir project on 1,495 acres of land. Of the total required land, nearly 633 acres are government poromboke land and 55 acres are reserve forest area while the rest of it is patta land.
Of the 806 acres of land to be acquired in Kannankottai and Thervoy Kandigai villages in Gummidipondi taluk, the owners of nearly 76 acres of land went to court, challenging the land acquisition (LA). But the court has dismissed petitions filed by the landowners last week after which the revenue official went to take possession of the agricultural land with standing crops.
Following the protest by farmers, Tiruvallur district collector K. Veera Raghava Rao has asked WRD officials to not to touch the disputed land until the harvest.“We are going to take up work on the construction of a bund on 100 acres of the private land without disturbing that which is under cultivation,” WRD superintending engineer N. Maheswaran told DC. The works are underway to construct an 8.3-km long canal, except a small stretch coming under the reserve forest area, to bring Krishna water from the Kandaleru Poondi canal to the reservoir.
“We have identified the land required to be handed over to the Union environment and forest ministry to acquire the reserve forest land,” he said. The new reservoir will have capacity to hold 1,000 million cubic feet (mcft) of water if filled twice. The water stored in the new reservoir will be used to meet the city’s month-long water requirements. At present, water is being drawn from four reservoirs in Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam whose combined storage capacity is 11,057 mcft. As per the 1983 agreement, Tamil Nadu is entitled to get 12,000 mcft from Andhra Pradesh in two spells.
“We are hoping to complete all the works on the reservoir and canal by May next year so that water can be stored there during the next monsoon,” the official said.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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