The restoration of Adyar river will be taken up for on the 44-km stretch with various recreational facilities to realise the objective of Singara Chennai project.
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Tackling untreated sewage will be the main aim apart from riverfront development, the officials said.
In his Budget speech delivered in the State Assembly on Monday, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the State government was committed to restore the Adyar, the Cooum and other waterways.
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The ₹1,500-crore project is expected to be implemented through public private partnership (PPP) mode as the first phase of the initiative. The project will focus on river cleaning, preventing sewage inflow and construction of treatment plants. Moreover, recreational facilities such as aesthetic parks, green walkways, open air gymnasium and cafeteria would dot the banks of the river.
The Water Resources Department (WRD) and other government agencies, including the Greater Chennai Corporation, have executed various improvement works with the support of Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust. However, the river continues to be easy prey to the menace of untreated sewage in city limits and used as a dump on the outskirts.
The department had taken up improvement work estimated at ₹94 crore in 25-km portion of the river from Thiru. Vi. Ka. bridge to Tiruneermalai bridge two years ago. It is continuing desilting efforts downstream of Thiru. Vi. Ka. bridge. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) is setting up a few modular sewage treatment plants.
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The Corporation has started planting saplings along the river banks from the river mouth to the Airport. The civic body has taken steps to prevent sewage mixing in storm-water drains and canals that carry water to the river and the Adyar creek. The number of species in the Adyar Poonga has increased after the restoration of the 358 acres of the creek.
But illegal sewage outfalls continued to pollute the waterway. Officials of the Water Resources Department said the project aims at addressing the issue of sewage pollution for a comprehensive restoration with improved water quality to bathing standards.
A trunk sewer line would be laid on the lands near the bund and this would collect the sewer from the inlets and send it to STPs to be constructed along various points of the river to be treated. The step would help treat sewage at the end source and prevent entry into the river, the officials said. The implementing agency for the project is yet to be chosen.
The department has taken up 12 flood mitigation works in Chennai and neighbouring districts at a cost of ₹434 crore. Nearly 75% of the work to bridge missing gaps in channels around Porur lake has been completed so far, the officials added.