Nearly two years after the project was devised, work to create a channel to transport surplus water from Porur lake to Manapakkam surplus canal is progressing briskly. The project is crucial to reducing flooding in the areas around Porur during the monsoon.
Residents of localities, including Mugalivakkam, Paraniputhur and Kolapakkam, live in fear of flooding during monsoon months, as there is no vent for water to flow to the nearest lake or waterway.
Residents of Porur say portions of the channel carrying excess water from Porur lake had disappeared over the years following rapid urbanisation. Formation of the Chennai Bypass Road too had curtailed the free flow of the channel.
An official of the water resources department (WRD), which is implementing the project, said, “We wanted to execute the project without acquiring land. This resulted in some delay.”
WRD is strengthening surplus course of Porur lake and also creating a four-metre-wide channel for a kilometre along the service road of Chennai Bypass Road. The surplus water will join Manapakkam channel and drain into Adyar river.
“We are building a retaining wall for a distance of 4.5 km to define the course of the channel and prevent encroachments. A box-type channel will be constructed to link the floodwater to Manapakkam channel, crossing the service road at Paraniputhur,” said the official.
The Rs. 44-crore project, taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, will be completed by December.
Residents of Porur and Manapakkam also want the work to rejuvenate Porur lake to be finished soon. “The work to improve Porur lake was started a year ago. Some people still dump garbage in a portion of the waterbody,” said S. Vijay, a resident of Porur.
Officials of WRD said 60 per cent of the work to restore the lake to a drinking water source had been completed. “We are fencing the vulnerable portions. Desilting is the only work that needs to be completed,” said an official.
Of the nearly 2.50 lakh cubic metres of sand proposed to be excavated, about 30,000 cubic metres have been removed so far.
Wait for environment clearance from Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur district administrations had slowed down the process, the official said.
