WRD defers request for Krishna water release as Chennai reservoirs brim

With Chennai’s large reservoirs brimming with storage, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has deferred its petition for the merchandise of Krishna h2o from Andhra Pradesh for the existent spell by a month.

The 5 drinking h2o reservoirs person a combined retention of astir 95% of their full capableness of 11,757 cardinal cubic feet arsenic of Thursday. In the meantime, the section volition utilise the interruption successful Krishna h2o proviso to undertake important repair works connected canals linking waterbodies, to trim conveyance losses.

Chennai indispensable beryllium provided with 4,000 mcft during January and April, arsenic per the inter-State statement nether the Krishna Water Supply project. Officials of the WRD, however, said the section had written to Andhra Pradesh authorities to hold h2o discharge by astir a period owing to ample retention successful the reservoirs.

Poondi reservoir successful Tiruvallur district, which stores Krishna h2o released from AP’s Kandaleru reservoir, received astir 3, 792 mcft of h2o during the erstwhile spell betwixt July and October past year.

Officials said enactment is already successful advancement to repair susceptible portions of the Link canal, which conveys h2o from Poondi to Chembarambakkam reservoir. “We are executing works to repair the damaged slope lining successful assorted stretches of 25-km agelong canal. Once the ₹1.5 crore task is completed, the canal ratio would improve, enabling it to transportation maximum quantity of water,” said an official.

Similarly, works volition beryllium implemented to fortify the Kandaleru-Poondi Canal and the 21-km-long feeder canal that transmits h2o from Poondi to Red Hills reservoir. The ₹10.75-crore task aims astatine strengthening the damaged portions on a astir 3.3-km agelong done slope extortion lining and retaining partition to amended bund stability. Portions adjacent Sirukadal regulator point, wherever the feeder canal branches disconnected from Link Canal, would beryllium taken up for the project.

Nearly four-km of the susceptible portions of Kandaleru-Poondi Canal besides would beryllium improved astatine a outgo of ₹10.2 crore to forestall bund erosion and seepage loss.

These works were imperative to convey and store optimal quantity of Krishna h2o and summation travel velocity. Such works were carried retired successful a phased mode to support the canal’s structural condition, said officials.