A fifth reservoir will soon be created to store and supply drinking water to Chennai.
Work to create the proposed reservoir by linking two water bodies in Kannankottai and Thervoy Kandigai in Gummidipoondi taluk is likely to begin in mid-August.
The water resources department plans to take up the much-awaited Rs. 330 crore-project in the 894 acres of land available. Of the total 1,495 acres of land required for the project, nearly 633.67 acres are government poromboke land, 55 acres are reserve forest area and remaining is private land.
The new reservoir, with a water spread area of 1,100 acres, would store Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh, apart from its catchment areas.
It would have a capacity to hold one thousand million cubic feet, when filled twice. This is equal to amount of water drawn from the existing reservoirs to meet the city’s water requirements for a month.
Water is being drawn now from four reservoirs in Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam.
A team comprising a special district revenue officer and tahsildars is involved in acquiring the land belonging to various government agencies such as highways and animal husbandry department. So far, 572 acres of government land and 322 acres of private land have been acquired.
Officials of the WRD said that notifications to acquire private land are being issued and the entire process, including provision of compensation to land owners, will be completed in six months.
The lands are being acquired in villages such as Senjiagaram, Karadiputhur and Tamaraikuppam.
Meanwhile, the department is finalising the tender to start the work to create the reservoir. With the available land, 50 per cent of the work, including deepening and desilting of the water bodies can be initiated. “We plan to start creating an earthen bund for a length of 5.5 km of the total distance of 7 km. It would be raised to a height of 14 m. Sand excavated from the water bodies will be used to construct the bund,” said an official.
The fifth reservoir will come up around 14 km away from Uthukottai, the inter-state limit of Kandaleru Poondi canal.
The special team is also in the process of getting land to form an 8.3 km-long canal to bring Krishna water from the KP canal to the new reservoir.
Chennai Metrowater will create the infrastructure to transport nearly 66 million litres of water a day from the Thervoy Kandigai Kannankottai reservoir for city supply.
The project is expected to be completed in two years.
