With the State government’s allocation of ₹161 crore, work on the fourth and final phase of Tamirabharani-Karumaeniyar-Nambiyar river-linking project began at Aayankulam near Thisaiyanvilai in the district on Thursday.
Radhapuram MLA I.S. Inbadurai and Executive Engineer of Public Works Department (River Linking) Gnanasekaran inaugurated the 20-km-long project.
The work was taken up on an outlay of ₹369 crore to use about 2.765 tmcft (20% of 13.76 thousand million cubic feet) of surplus water available in the Tamirabharani every year. The excess water would be diverted through Kannadian channel and a 75.17 km-long flood carrier channel would be formed to take the water to the dry regions of Nanguneri and Thisaiyavilai in Tirunelveli district and Sattankulam in Thoothukudi district.
As the 6.5-km-long Kannadian channel’s carrying capacity was increased from 450 cubic feet per second (cusecs) to 3,680 cusecs, formation of a new channel to be dug up to M.L. Theri, a sand dune, near Sattankulam in Thoothukudi district, from Kannadian channel at Vellankuzhi was started. The proposed canal can carry 3,200 cusecs of water.
There are many canals that will connect the 75.17-km-long canal with a host of tanks in the basins of Karumeniyar and Nambiyar and the Manimuthar’s tributaries such as Pachchaiyaar, Koraiyaar and Yelumichchaiyaar. The main canal will link with the Pachayar.
When the project is completed, it will benefit 50 villages in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts, of which five are in Palyamkottai taluk; 17 in Nanguneri taluk; 10 in Radhapuram taluk; 16 in Sattankulam taluk and two in Tiruchendur taluk. With the surplus water, irrigation facilities can be provided to about 23,040 hectares in the two districts.
Of about 1,076 hectares of land required for the project, 994 hectares fell under the category of dry land and 14.5 hectares under wet land. About 68 hectares were poromboke lands.
Since the State government, with the hope of getting the assistance from the Centre, released funds, foundation stone was laid in February 2009 by then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the first two phases of the project could be completed. As the then DMK government could not get mandatory clearance from the Union Government’s Ministry of Environment, the river-linking scheme was in limbo after the change of guard in 2011.
The then MLA of Radhapuram, M. Appavu, approached the High Court and got a few directions to the State government in support of the project. The undue delay has meanwhile increased the project cost from ₹369 crore to ₹872 crore.
“The project, which was launched during the DMK regime without any assurance and clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest, had to be stalled for want of funds. The AIADMK government later got assurance and ₹217 crore from the Centre to execute the third phase of the work. Now, the fourth phase of the work has started with the funding of ₹161 crore and will be completed before January-end,” Mr. Inbadurai said.
