The Hindu : Krishna water for Chennai likely by July

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Krishna water for Chennai likely by July

By T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI JAN. 11 . Andhra Pradesh has told Tamil Nadu that it will be able to supply Krishna water for Chennai in June or July.

"With the present storage in the Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs, the neighbouring State cannot supply any substantial amount of water. So, they told us that once the Somasila started receiving flows, the water release could commence after transferring to the Kandaleru," a senior official said, adding that there were occasions when the Somasila received heavy flows even in June.

On Friday, the two Chief Secretaries of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh met in Hyderabad, aided by senior officials of both States to discuss the release of water for Chennai.

The 90-minute-long discussion went off cordially. "They were sympathetic of our case," the official said.

This was a sequel to the meeting the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, had with her Andhra Pradesh counterpart, N. Chandrababu Naidu, late last month in Hyderabad.

Explaining the water scenario of Chennai, senior officials of Tamil Nadu told their counterparts that the current storage in the city reservoirs would last till March or April. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary even offered that if the supply situation had become worse in Chennai, arrangements for pumping water from the Kandaleru could be made. The suggestion was appreciated by Tamil Nadu, which, however, felt that in the past, such attempts were not fruitful for the city as excess illegal drawal of water along the KP canal took away whatever water was flowing in the canal.

The official said the discussion touched upon the lining works of the KP Canal, being carried out by a leading private infrastructure construction company and funded by the Sai Trust. Of the total length of 152 km, nearly 60 km would be covered in the initial phase. Already, the Andhra Pradesh Government lined around 30 km.

"The ongoing work would be completed by July and since its commencement last year, about 10 km had been covered," the official said.

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