By Express News Service CHENNAI: The ongoing restoration of Adyar River, which started in October, will be completed by December 2020, said officials during an inspection conducted on Saturday. Principal Secretary J Radhakrishnan along with PWD and corporation officials visited the spot and inspected the ongoing works at Thiru Vi Ka Bridge near Malligai Poo Nagar. PWD officials told Radhakrishnan that desilting and widening works for distance of 25 km will be completed by March 2020. Then plugging of sewage outfalls, beautification along banks, installation of seven STPs, construction of jetties and parking lots, removal of encroachments will be done by departments like Metro Water, Slum Clearance Board and corporation by December 2020. Desilting works at Thiru Vi Ka Bridge which started two weeks will be done till Kotturpuram bridge for a distance of 2.8 km. Restoration of this stretch alone was pending due to want of CRZ clearance. Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change accorded the clearance for final and third phase of restoration. Sewage outfalls will also be identified along this stretch and this will be diverted to treatment facility being created near Kotturpuram MRTS station. “Flood protection wall for a distance of 1800 metres is being built along the river till Tiruneermalai at certain vulnerable points. Desilting of the river which is going on now will be done till the river’s origin point at Tiruneermalai,” said a senior official from Water Resource Department of PWD. This is the third phase part of the Adyar River restoration project done by Chennai River Restoration Trust with help from Metro Water board and Chennai Corporation at a cost of `555 crore. The state government allocated `2,000-odd crore of the restoration of Adyar river alone. Till date, out of a total 11,400 encroachments along the 42 kilometre river, 4515 encroachments have been removed said a release from corporation.

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