The Public Works Department (PWD) has begun the exercise of desilting reservoirs in the State and a technical committee has completed ‘capacity survey’ for carrying out the work in Vaigai and Amaravathy reservoirs on a pilot basis, according to Engineer-in-Chief, Water Resources Department (WRD), PWD.
In a report filed before the Madras High Court Bench here, the Engineer-in-Chief stated that restoring reservoirs to their original capacity was part of Chief Minister’s Vision 2023. Since desilting of reservoirs had not been attempted so far in the State, it had been decided to start the work on a pilot basis.
Apart from this, the PWD had also begun implementing Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).
The DRIP project covers 66 WRD dams and 38 Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) dams at a cost of Rs. 745.49 crore. It was being implemented with World Bank assistance over a period of six years. The project aims to restore the capacity of the dams, achieve effective utilisation of stored water and manage the long term performance of the dams.
The WRD had also undertaken works to restore 674 traditional waterbodies in the State. Of them, 297 tanks had already been restored fully and work was in progress in 41 other tanks.
The nature of the work involved strengthening of bunds, desilting and strengthening of feeder channels. Further, the WRD had protected 3,701 tanks from encroachments out of 13,699 tanks maintained by it.
The report also stated that so far 4,808 water tanks, 658 anicuts and 8,067.42 kilometres of supply channel had been covered under the Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water Bodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) project being implemented by the PWD since 2007 at an outlay of Rs.2,547 crore with loan assistance from World Bank.
After taking the report on file, a Division Bench of Justices R. Sudhakar and V.M. Velumani commended the department for taking up various projects and directed it to complete the works without any delay and file a progress report before the court on June 2.
The order was passed in a public interest litigation petition filed by lawyer K. Lakshmanan to protect the water bodies in the State.