Spotlight on linking 145 lakes with stormwater drains

October 10, 2016 12:00 am | Updated November 03, 2016 07:07 pm IST - CHENNAI:

Funding agencies have started work on a revised detailed project report for complete integration of the waterbodies with the network

Taking on:While JICA is expected to fund the project in north Chennai, KfW will fund for south Chennai, officials said. —Photo: Shaju John

Taking on:While JICA is expected to fund the project in north Chennai, KfW will fund for south Chennai, officials said. —Photo: Shaju John

The stormwater drains that are set to be developed in the city will be integrated with the 145 lakes and ponds in the city, to improve the water storage and the mitigating floods in many areas.

Funding agencies, such as KfW and JICA, have begun work on a revised detailed project report for the complete integration of stormwater drains with these waterbodies. JICA is expected to fund the project in north Chennai, and KfW in south Chennai, civic officials said.

The previous detailed project report prepared by the Chennai Corporation in 2011 failed to properly integrate all the 145 lakes and ponds in the project, while taking into account the vanishing waterbodies, officials said. “The earlier proposal gave priority to facilitate the draining of stormwater into the sea. The funding agencies are determined to integrate the waterbodies in the network. Lakes that are vanishing will likely be rejuvenated. The revised study would assess the change in the level. KfW and JICA will fund the project only after the lakes and ponds are integrated properly with the stormwater drain network,” said an official.

The original proposal of the Corporation covered a 1,055-km stormwater drain network in eight added zones. The revised project is likely to increase the length of drains in some areas. Work on the Adyar and Cooum basins have started with funding from the World Bank. But many of the lakes and ponds in the northern and southern parts of the city were not integrated in the proposed network.

“Only 55 lakes and ponds have to be integrated with the stormwater drain network in north Chennai,” said an official.

The revised DPR would take into account the list of water-logged areas in the zones.

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