The proposals to build storage structures including barrages and check dams across the Palar river in Chengalpattu district and Kancheepuram district remain on paper for many months now.
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The Water Resources Department (WRD) is either awaiting funds or design approval of the storage structures to execute the projects. It had proposed to build a barrage across the river near Udayambakkam-Padalam, falling in Chengalpattu district.
Sources in the WRD said it was part of the plan to build a series of storage structures across the Palar to conserve a portion of the surplus water that otherwise was getting drained into the sea. The department had submitted a revised design following record flow experienced in the river last year.
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It may be recalled that the water flow touched 1.65 lakh cusecs (cubic feet per second) last year. The height of the barrage was designed at a maximum of five metres so that a minimum of 0.5 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) could be stored.
There are plans to divert the surplus water to seven water bodies, such as Pallipattu and Pallavankulam, apart from storing water for a distance of four km in the upper reaches of the riverbed. This storage structure alone would benefit residents of 23 villages and help irrigate nearly 7,700 hectares of land.
Officials noted that the water saved in the Palar riverbed could also be diverted to cater to the drinking water needs of neighbouring areas, like Chengalpattu or Tambaram and other parts of the city through a pipeline.
A 7.5-metre-wide bridge over the barrage has also been planned to fulfil residents’ long-pending demand. Many of them now took detours to reach sugarcane and paddy mills in Madurantakam taluk.
Similar projects to build check dams at Nallathur, Vengudi and Venkatapuram are under the government’s scrutiny, officials added.