The Hindu 04.04.2013
Reconstruction of broken parts of Kandaleru Poondi canal begins
The hassles in receiving Krishna water from Andhra
Pradesh may soon be reduced as work to reconstruct the damaged portion
of the Kandaleru Poondi canal has started.
The Water
Resources Department and Chennai Metrowater authorities requested the
Andhra Pradesh officials to sustain the same amount of water release
from the Kandaleru reservoir to tackle water shortage this summer.
Despite the repair work, it has been requested that Krishna water be
provided to the city.
At present, the entry point of
Kandaleru Poondi canal at Uthukottai, Tiruvallur district, receives
about 80 cubic feet of water (cusecs). Officials of the WRD said that
water to the city is diverted through a set of pipelines due to damage
in the canal at Ubbalamadugu near Varadapalayam in Andhra Pradesh.
Preliminary
work is underway to demolish the old structure and work on
reconstructing the canal is set to begin in a few days. The project has
been taken up at a cost of Rs.6.9 crore. “As the water is already being
diverted, there is no need to stop the water supply to the city. Once
the work is completed in August, the canal will be ready to carry water
to its full capacity of 1,000 cusecs,” said an official.
Since
the beginning of the Krishna water supply project in 1996, Chennai has
so far realised 63.31 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft). On an
average, about one tmcft is being drawn from the city reservoirs every
month for water supply.
“We have received 4.5 tmcft
of water from June last year. This has helped to sustain the storage at
the reservoirs for several months,” said an official. The resources in
Veeranam tank, Cuddalore district, will also augment Chennai’s water
supply for a month. It provides 37 cusecs, which translates to 80
million litres of water a day.
Currently, the four
reservoirs have storage of only 36 per cent of its total capacity. With
the available resources, including from Veeranam tank and Krishna water,
drinking water supply could be maintained daily for three more months.
