Madhumitha Viswanath By Express News Service CHENNAI: After announcing in February that Chennai will get its sixth reservoir at Sriperumbudur, the State government has started work on the `60 crore project after eight months. Officials from Public Works Department said construction will begin in a month once the tender process is completed. “As there are no inhabitants in the area where the reservoir will come up, people will not have to be resettled like in the case of Thervoy Kandigai. Hence, this project is likely to finish on time,” said a senior official from Water Resources department. Being built across one of Adyar river’s tributaries, Orathur, the reservoir will be by combining Orathur and Arambakkam tanks and Orathur check dam in Sriperumbudur. Metro Water officials said they are planning to supply 85 million litres a day (MLD) once the project is commissioned by 2021. This project was mainly formulated to augment water supply to suburban areas such as Tambaram, Pallavaram, Anakaputhur and Pammal which are dependent on erratic Palar water supply. The reservoir will be built to store 0.75 tmcft which will be diverted to Padappai and Manimangalam tanks nearby. As nearly 50 per cent of water from these two tanks is mainly used for agriculture in the tanks’s ayacut area, water will be given for this purpose first. “This reservoir is mainly a storage facility and will help in increasing water levels in these two tanks. Water will not be supplied directly from this reservoir like in the case of Poondi or Red Hills. From Manimangalam and Padappai, Metro Water will draw water for distribution,” the official said. When Orathur and Arambakkam lakes are merged, around 280 acres of ‘Odai’ land in between will be acquired by government. People who own parcels of land in these 280 acres will be compensated by alternative land in downstream area, officials said.

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