Chennai to get 1,000 cusecs of Krishna water per day from next month

 

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

The city is likely to get 1,000 cusecs of Krishna water each day from Kandaleru reservoir by the end of this month with the linking of old canal with new structure, according Public Works Department.

 

A senior PWD official told Express that the main repair work on the damaged portion of the Kandaleru Poondi canal at Ubbalamadugu in Andhra Pradesh has been completed and now only the old canal has to be linked with new structure.

 

This also comes in the wake of Chief minister J Jayalalithaa asking the officials to pursue with Andhra Pradesh on the release of state’s quota of Krishna water.

 

PWD officials said that the canal work was delayed due to the Telengana stir in Andhra Pradesh. Currently, the city is getting only 140 cusecs of water, the official said.

 

Meanwhile, heavy rains during the last couple of days have failed to bring in much needed cheer for Metro Water officials who are keeping their fingers crossed as the catchment areas of the city got only 32 million cubic feet of water.

 

A senior Metro water official told Express that the 32 mcft water could last only one day. “We are hoping for more rains in the coming days,” he said.

 

However, he said the rains would have helped recharge the ground water in the city that is a good sign.

 

Currently, the city has nearly 4.7 tmc feet of water if Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills, Chembarambakkam and Veeranam lake are taken into account.

 

As per figures available with Metro Water, Poondi has 724 million cubic feet, Cholavaram 173 million cubic feet, Red Hills 1,899 million cubic feet, Chembarambakkam 975 million cubic feet and Veeranam 1,051 million cubic feet.

 

Poondi reservoir had an inflow of 81 cusecs of Krishna Water besides an addition of 119 cusecs of rain water. Similarly, Chembarambakkam got 328 cusecs of rain water while Red Hills had an inflow of 23 cusecs of water.

 

Interestingly, the highest inflow of water during the rains was to Veeranam which recorded an addition of 900 cusecs of water.

 

Interestingly, last year Poondi, Chembarambakkam, Red Hills and Cholavaram alone had a storage of 4.2 TMC feet which is 500 million cubic feet more than last year. But 2012 was considered to be one of the dry year and Metro water had been struggling to fulfil the demands of the city through ground water and tanker services. Interestingly, the last year figures doesn’t include the storage level in Veeranam.