To bring Krishna water to Chennai reservoirs quicker, 300 km pipeline planned
Posted on: 21/Dec/2019 9:49:09 AM
The water crisis that was present in the summer season in Chennai has made the official to think differently now. The officials do not want this to happen again in the future.
It is now said that the TN officials are thinking about building a pipeline for about 300 kms to bring Krishna water to Chennai reservoirs at faster speeds. The water crisis situation has improved in Chennai now after good amount of rains.
For the sake of meeting Chennai city’s drinking water demands, the government of AP has to provide 12000 tmcft of water annually. This was according to Telugu- Ganga project that started in the 1980`s. From the Kandaleru reservoir in AP to Chennai reservoirs, water is diverted by an open canal is known.
It must be taken into account that 2 months back the officials proposed to construct 150 km long pipeline connecting Kandaleru with Poondi reservoir in Chennai. It seems that this project would not begin and now the officials have proposed to construct a longer pipeline up to Srisailam dam.
Alternate solutions are being explored now like this one because Kandaleru reservoir might not be ideal source to draw Krishna river water as it reaches the dead storage level very fast. This has been revealed by some sources. The water wastage during transportation through the canal is 30% and the pipeline would prevent this water wastage. This was as per some officials belonging to WRD.
A senior official mentioned about how the construction cost of the project was high and how when the pipeline was laid then there would not be any maintenance required for next 15 years. He added that there would be minimum scope for people to illegally tap water also. The important point here is the present open canal could carry just 1000 cusecs of water and out of this nearly 400 cusecs of water is lost in the transportation. Chennai city has not received even 3 tmcft in the last 3 years.
At this juncture, a pipeline between Kandaleru and Poondi reservoir would be superb and is the need of the hour. It is important to note that till date no talks have been initiated with the AP government regarding Kandaleru- Poondi project and the plan to extend the project to include Srisailam in the project hasn’t been raised within the government.
It must be noted that Srisailam has got a total capacity to hold 215 tmcft of water and is 40% full throughout the year.
