Minister Duraimurugan opens canal rejuvenated to prevent flooding and improve irrigation

Minister for Water Resources, Duraimurugan on Wednesday inaugurated the restored left canal of Mordhana Dam, which is maintained by Water Resources Department (WRD), in Gudiyatham town near Katpadi in Vellore.

Officials of WRD, who carried out the work, at a cost of ₹ 2.5 crore, said that the restoration work was a long-standing demand of farmers and residents in the region as desilting work, which is being done for the first time since the dam was built in 2001, will help to prevent inundation of Gudiyatham and Katpadi taluks during monsoon.

“The restoration will help to prevent any wastage of water through weeds. Farmers will get water for irrigation on time as water can freely flow in the canal after its restoration,” said B. Pandi, a farmer.

At present, total storage capacity of the reservoir, which is built across the Koundinya river, a tributary of the Palar, is 261.3 mcft. WRD officials said that initially, desilting work has been completed on the left canal, which runs 31.84 kms distance, covering at least 19 villages with around 1,710.92 hectares of farmland. This is mainly due to the large tract of land under cultivation along the left canal, which is three metres wide.

While water from the Koundinya river directly irrigates around 140 acres, another 220 acres in the region are irrigated through water from the canal. “Thick vegetation on the canal bed has prevented steady flow of water. It resulted in breach of its bund, resulting in inundation. The work has been completed ahead of the northeast monsoon,” R. Ramkumar, Assistant Engineer (AE), PWD (Katpadi), told The Hindu. 

As part of work, WRD officials said that desilting of canal bed was done under the Rehabilitation and Restoration of Lakes scheme 2024-25. Deposited silt on the canal bed is removed to a depth of three metres to ensure steady water flow on it. Growth of thick vegetation especially on bund and slope of the bund has also been removed. 

During field study, WRD officials said they found breach of the canal at least in 10 spots on the bund, which is 5 metres in height. Protection wall, which will be six feet in height, to a distance of 500 metres at these spots has been built to prevent any water seepage during monsoon.