The Water Resources Department (WRD) is planning to approach the Andhra Pradesh government soon seeking release of water from the Kandaleru reservoir as there is adequate space for storage in the city reservoirs.
According to sources in the WRD, a team of officials is set to visit their counterparts in Kalahasti, Andhra Pradesh, to request them to discharge water in a few days. As per the agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh under the Krishna water supply project, the neighbouring State has to release four thousand million cubic feet of water during the period of January-April.
The water release was delayed last year. Instead of releasing water between July and October, the Andhra Pradesh government discharged water only from October and supplied it till January-end this year. The Poondi reservoir, which is the prime storage point, for Chennai realised nearly 4.6 tmcft.
As the city reservoirs in Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarampakkam had sufficient storage, the officials here did not immediately seek water discharge.
Officials said that though the water storage position was comfortable, discharge of Krishna water would help in stepping up storage.
The resources here are fast depleting owing to evaporation loss.
On Monday, the combined storage in the four reservoirs was 7,417 million cubic feet against the capacity of 11,057 mcft. Of this, the waterbody in Poondi has storage of 2,432 mcft against its capacity of 3,231 mcft.
At present, the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh has storage of nearly 44 tmcft against its capacity of 68 tmcft. This would be enough to supply Chennai apart from the domestic needs.
The officials plan to request water discharge until the city reservoirs become full. According to the agreement, Chennai has to be supplied one tmcft every month.
The WRD here has taken up maintenance work of the feeder and link canal that transmit water from Poondi reservoir to the waterbodies in Red Hills and Chembarampakkam respectively.
