The State has sought expertise of ‘Metroman’ E. Sreedharan to widen the 722-metre Sivagiri tunnel and the 350-metre Chilakoor tunnel on the 60.5-km Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam section of the TS Canal to meet future needs and extend National Waterway III up to Kovalam.
Mr. Sreedharan, who is also the Principal Adviser, DMRC, has been roped in to look into the possibility of widening the two tunnels at the initiative of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Mr. Sreedharan, who had the expertise in laying of 83 km of tunnels in 92 locations for Konkan Railway, visited the tunnels on Saturday to see the present status of the tunnels that has become out of bounds for traffic and ground realities. He was accompanied by officials.
Official sources in the Irrigation Department told The Hindu that Mr. Sreedharan had been asked to look into the feasibility of widening the two tunnels to ensure the hassle-free movement of bigger vessels and barges through the waterway.
The move comes at a time when steps are being taken to expedite the development and revival of the waterway from Anchuthengu Kayal to Nadayara Kayal, and the revival of two tunnels at Varkala and Reach II from Thazhevettoor to Ramanthalay at a cost of Rs.19 crore.
The tunnels and the 12.7-km waterways are part of the 60.5-km Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam section of the TS Canal. The adjacent Kollam-Kottapuram stretch of the West Coast Canal has been declared as National Waterway III and is almost ready for commissioning.
Dredging, widening, and reinforcement work were proposed to make the stretch navigable and extend the NW III up to Kovalam. The move is also part of the resolve of the Chief Minister to exploit the waterway for freight traffic as part of de-congestion of the State’s road network.
In 2007, former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan took the risk of moving in a boat to the Sivagiri tunnel as part of the initiative to make it navigable. But, the attempts to revive it have failed. The tunnels and the waterway date back to 1880, when it was completed by Diwans T. Madhava Rao and Seshaya Sastri during the reign of Sree Ayilyam Tirunal.
The proposal before the Irrigation is to create a 14-metre wide, two-metre deep waterway on the 12.7-km stretch for the vessels to cruise. The Sivagiri tunnel, completed in 1880, is reported to be the only one of its kind in Asia.
Concrete lining was provided between 1934 and 1942 and these have come off at several places. Although it rises to a height of five metre, siltation restricts the air draft to 1.3 metre, affecting the flow of water on either side.
Part of move to extend waterway up to Kollam
Sreedharan inspects tunnels
