WRD set to submit project report on increasing storage capacity of Poondi reservoir in a month

There are plans to raise the water level of the reservoir to store an additional 0.78 thousand million cubic feet of water (tmcft)
| Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

The Water Resources Department is set to submit in about a month, a detailed project report to increase the storage capacity of the Poondi reservoir to meet the growing drinking water requirements of Chennai. The reservoir has an inevitable role in the city’s water source landscape.

The preliminary investigation on the feasibility of raising the reservoir’s water level by two feet is nearing completion.

Officials of the WRD said there were plans to raise the water level of the reservoir by two feet to store an additional 0.78 thousand million cubic feet of water (tmcft). There is no land acquisition required for the project, unlike the recent project of creating Thervoy Kandigai-Kannankottai reservoir.

Every year, the Poondi reservoir receives four to five-fold inflow of flood water than its existing capacity to store 3.23 tmcft.

However, only two or three tmcft of water gets conserved through storage structures, including check-dams downstream, across the Kosasthalaiyar river. The project is one of the efforts to conserve humongous amount of water flowing from upstream portions of the Kosasthalaiyar river and improve availability of freshwater for the residents of Chennai.

To increase the storage capacity of the reservoir, the department has planned to improve the existing infrastructure by creating a new foreshore bund for a length of 25 km. The dam and the existing bund, including the stretch of eight-km-long bund on the right flank of the dam near Pullarambakkam, would also be strengthened or reconstructed adhering to the recommendations of the WRD design circle, said officials.

The causeways located downstream of the Poondi reservoir would be replaced with high-level bridges to prevent streaming floodwaters released into the Kosasthalaiyar river from submerging them. The 300-metre portion of Kandaleru-Poondi canal joining the reservoir would also be improved.

Moreover, the parks on both sides of the reservoir and access roads would be spruced up to improve tourism infrastructure. The project would play a small part in the Godavari Cauvery interlinking project as Chennai may get a share of water if it is routed through Krishna water. It would be stored in the Poondi reservoir, officials added.

The project is likely to be funded either by the World Bank or the State government. The ₹9.8-crore work to repair the shutters is also nearing completion.