Thervoy Kandigai reservoir to be ready next month, says WRD

The reservoir that has a capacity to store one million cubic feet will supply an additional 65 million litres per day (MLD) to the city. After starting off with much fanfare about five years ago, with the State government allocating Rs 380 crore for the project, the work has been stuttering. As per the last schedule, it was expected to be completed in 2019, but was reportedly hit by northeast monsoon.

“The Thervoy Kandigai reservoir is being delayed for almost five years due to trouble in land acquisition and northeast monsoon. The reservoir with a capacity of 1 million cubic feet (MCFT) will supply extra 65 MLD to the city,” said a WRD official. The official added that only 10 per cent of the construction work was left and was expected to be completed by next month.

Initially, not satisfied with the compensation offered, the local residents refused to vacate their lands and filed a petition in the High Court. “Of the total money sanctioned for the project, Rs 160 crore was spent on resettling those whose lands were acquired for it. Only the remaining amount was spent for the reservoir,” said the official.

The reservoir is being created by combining two lakes at Kannankottai and Thervoy Kandigai villages in Tiruvallur. As part of the project, a 7 km canal was laid to carry water from the Kandaleru-Poondi canal to the newreservoir.

The Water Resources Department (WRD) is all set to start the second phase work of Dam Rehabilitation and Implementation Project (DRIP) in April this year, for which the government has allottedRs 610.26 crore.

“Under phase two of the project, rehabilitation of 37 dams would be covered across the State at a total project cost of Rs 610.26 crore. The project would be implemented along with the Agriculture Engineering Department. The purpose of the project is to improve the safety and operational performance of the dams,” said A Kalimuthu, Project Director, WRD.  

As part of project under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, rehabilitation of 89 dams were taken up under the project in the first phase, of which 69 dams are operated by the Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department and 20 by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco). The work was started in April 2012 at a cost of Rs 803.49 crore. So far, work on 67 dams have been completed.

In phase I, works such as rehabilitating shutter, sluices, and strengthening of dams were taken up. Work on two dams – Manimuthar dam in Tirunelveli and Pechiparai dam in Kanniyakumari – is under progress.