After nearly a decade, Poondi reservoir, one of the major storage points of Chennai’s drinking water, is set to be improved.
To start with, the water resources department (WRD) plans to repair two of the 14 floodgates in the Satyamurthy Sagar dam, part of the reservoir in Tiruvallur district.
Water stored in this reservoir is diverted to the other reservoirs in Red Hills and Chembarambakkam, to supply drinking water to Chennai. Several months ago, WRD had installed adjustable emergency shutters to facilitate repair and maintenance work on the floodgates.
A WRD official said two shutters can be lifted and repaired simultaneously with the help of the emergency floodgates, which are 15 feet tall and 40 feet wide.
WRD recently submitted a proposal to the government to take up the work worth nearly Rs. 1 crore. This is a significant move as it will help take up major repair work on the floodgates and help prevent even the minimal leakage when the storage goes up in the reservoir.
“We plan to start work in one or two months as summer is the right time,” said an official. The reservoir at Poondi, which now has storage of 100 million cubic feet (mcft) and a capacity of 3,231 mcft, receives Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh.
WRD is also preparing a detailed project report to strengthen the bund for a distance of four km and also repair a link canal that carries water from Poondi reservoir to other reservoirs.
Sources said plans are on to seek funds under the dam rehabilitation and improvement project.
