Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river-linking project: Will never abandon Kalaignar’s brainchild, Duraimurugan rebuts AIADMK ex-Min

CHENNAI: Calling the Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river linking project as former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's brainchild, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan said the department had prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for building the canal, spanning from 4.100 km to 54.695 km, at a cost of Rs 3,076 crore, in order to seek government approval. He was also confident that the incumbent would make Karunanidhi’s dream come true.

The project aims to divert surplus water from the Cauvery during the monsoon season to the districts of Karur, Tiruchy, Sivaganga, Pudukkottai, and Ramanathapuram for irrigating over 52,000 acres of land, as well as for drinking water purposes. It was announced as a three-phase project, said Duraimurugan by recalling the words of a former CM Karunanidhi in the house in 2008.

"It (Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar river-linking) project is our brainchild. It was announced by our leader, Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi), who foresaw the needs of the farmers in the region. So, how can we abandon it?" he asked while responding to former minister C Vijayabaskar's call attention motion regarding the status of the project.

Vijaya Baskar, while speaking on the motion, described it as a decades-old "dream project" of the farming community in seven districts. He stressed that it should not turn into a mirage. The previous AIADMK regime, under the leadership of Edappadi K Palaniswami, had granted Rs 7,000 crore administrative sanction for the project, aiming to divert 20,000 to 30,000 million cubic metres of surplus water from the Cauvery to the seven districts.

He pointed out that the government had neither allocated funds for the project in the budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 nor mentioned it in the department's demand for grants. However, he noted that the department mentioned in the policy note that it had prepared a DPR for phase I, costing Rs 3,076 crore, and had initiated actions to seek government approval. This, he argued, sowed doubts among farmers regarding the implementation of the project.

Intervening Viralimalai legislator’s talk, minister Duraimurugan clarified that the AIADMK regime had only given "in-principle" approval to the project in November 2020, for Rs 6,941 crore. He highlighted that it was the present DMK regime that had allocated funds and expedited the land acquisition process. So far, over 749 hectares of land have been acquired for the project.

The department had also undertaken canal works in two stretches, from 0 km to 4.100 km in Karur, and from 54.695 km to 60.050 km in the Tiruchy-Pudukkottai stretch, as part of the first phase. Between 2021-22 and 2024-2025, the government allocated Rs 373 crore for the project, of which works worth Rs 278 crore have been completed, he said.

The department is now working to seek government approval for the canal formation works between 4.100 km and 54.695 km in Karur and Tiruchy districts, at a cost of Rs 3,076 crore. The minister also announced that the department would prepare DPRs for the second and third phases of the project.