Water Resource Organisation (WRO) of the Public Works Department is all set to rejuvenate Noyyal system at Rs. 180 crore with help from the World Bank.
The project is being taken up under the Cauvery Development Plan. Rivers Noyyal, Amaravathy and Bhavani are the tributaries of River Cauvery. Besides Noyyal, works have already begun for concrete lining of Lower Bhavani canal at an outlay of nearly Rs. 1,200 crore under the Bhavani basin and two phases of renovation of Amaravathy basin have already commenced at a cost of nearly Rs 150 crore are under way.
Rs. 150 crore
The 700-to-800-year-old Noyyal system has Chinnaru, Periaru, Kalkothiaru and 30 other rivers, rivulets and wild streams as tributaries. Starting at the foothills of Velliangiri hills, the system has 23 anaicuts and 31 tanks, besides 92 km of leading channels from anaicuts to tanks. Total route length of all the canals is around 1,450 km. Except for seasonal works based on contingency, no major rejuvenation of Noyyal was taken up since 1965, sources said.
Noyyal rejuvenation project remained on paper and never took off, because of the decision not to take up any works in Cauvery basin related schemes.
With the tribunal order being notified in the gazette, works are now being taken up, the PWD official sources said.
Initial proposal was for rejuvenation of Noyyal at a cost of Rs. 44.5 core and the scheme never took off because of the fund constraints and the next proposal was for Rs. 100 crore with the World Bank funding.
The proposal was under consideration since November 2007.
Now, the project aims at strengthening, cleaning and capacity augmentation of all the anaicuts and tanks, clearing of encroachments in the leading channels and canals, besides other repair works. The width of Noyyal has shrunk from 400 to 500 meters to hardly 70 to 80 meters at many places because of the encroachment.
