The Water Resources Organisation (WRO) of the Public Works Department has proposed to put up an ambitious project to construct 15 check dams at a cost of Rs. 8.99 crore in Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Karur Districts.
A senior official of the PWD said construction of the check dams has become a continuous exercise of the PWD as part of the artificial ground water recharge initiative funded by both the Government of India and State Government. While these proposals would get clearance shortly, identification of such similar check dam proposals had already begun in respect of the next year.
The Forest Department, Agri Engineering and TWAD Board, was also on the job of carrying out such works with a special focus on areas considered as dry belts.
Check dams in Coimbatore would come up at eight places at a cost of Rs. 4.41 crore.
The check dams to be taken up include the valley area of one acre in Pooluvampatti area at a cost of Rs 80 lakh with the Forest Department gifting the dam construction site to the PWD and harvest of water from Chinnar in Vaidegi Falls near Narasipuram at a cost of Rs 35 lakh. These two proposals were mooted as early as in 2005 and 2002, respectively.
The other check dams are the one across the wild stream at Kondanur in Anaikatti area at a cost of Rs 60 lakh, another at a cost of Rs 30 lakh at Murugampathi near Mavuthampathi, another at Kumittipathy at a cost of Rs. 52 lakh, at Mopperipalayam in Sulur at a cost of Rs. 60 lakh and at Kumarapalayam in Mettupalayam at a cost of Rs. 15 lakh.
