Delay in land acquisition stalls work on Orathur reservoir for three years

While the Water Resources Department pushes ahead with the ambitious Mamallan reservoir project to meet Chennai’s growing water needs, another key initiative — a proposed reservoir across the Orathur tributary of the Adyar river — has remained incomplete for nearly three years.

Conceived as a flood-mitigation measure and to augment water supply, the project has run into stumbling blocks, including pending court cases, stalling progress on the ground.

The ₹55.84-crore project, which was initiated in 2020, aims at merging Orathur and Arambakkam tanks, and Orathur tributary to form a new reservoir. While the project was envisaged to be completed by 2021, only 68% of the work has been completed so far owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, delay in land acquisition, and transfer of alternate lands to the owners.

Pending bund work

Officials of the WRD said that work to build 490 metres of the 2,875-m-long connecting bund between the two waterbodies remained pending, as acquisition of private lands has not been completed.

The delay has been compounded by legal hurdles related to the reclassification of pastoral land in Korukkanthangal and Orathur under the land exchange process and the issuance of pattas.

The proposed reservoir is necessary to reduce flood risk in southern suburbs such as Mahalakshmi Nagar and Varadharajapuram and to irrigate lands spread across 181.26 hectares. It would also supply 100 million litres of water daily to Chennai, officials said.

“Last year, we carried out works to restore breached bunds and prevent flooding in southern suburbs. A diversion channel was formed to redirect flood water to the Adyar river. The reservoir already has water to a depth of 6 ft-7 ft,” an official said.

Improvement works

V. Rajasekaran, president, Federation of Varadharajapuram Residents’ Welfare Associations, said improvement works such as desilting portions of Adyar river and building a retaining wall helped reduce inundation in flood-prone areas.

Residents also said the monsoon rainfall was comparatively lower last year and that the new reservoir must be formed soon to prevent flood risk in areas around the Adyar river in southern suburbs.

Spread across 302.39 hectares, the new reservoir will have a storage capacity of nearly 587 million cubic feet (mcft) in the first phase, which will increase to 1,000 mcft once the entire area is desilted in the second phase.

While the surplus water would be discharged into the Adyar near Varadharajapuram, a canal would be formed to supply 150 mcft of water to Padappai, Ammanambakkam, and Manimangalam tanks.

Efforts are being taken to complete the project, designed on the lines of Thervoy Kandigai-Kannankottai reservoir, soon, officials added.