Poondi reservoir to undergo infrastructure boost before Northeast monsoon

The Water Resources Department (WRD) will soon commence additional rehabilitation work at the Sathyamoorthy Sagar Dam in Poondi reservoir, one of the Chennai’s drinking water sources. The project aims to equip the water body to handle heavy inflows and ensure smooth water discharge during the ensuing Northeast monsoon.

Spread over 34.58 sq.km., the reservoir in Tiruvallur district is a prime water body that stores Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh for city water supply. It now has a storage of 2,158 million cubic feet of water (mcft) against its capacity of 3,231 mcft.

Officials of the WRD said the main component of repairing the shutters was completed last year to arrest leakages. Every year, the Poondi reservoir receives three to four-fold inflow of flood water than its existing capacity and opening floodgates during the monsoon has become a routine affair. Measures are afoot to conserve a portion of floodwater flowing into the Kosasthalaiyar river.

In a bid to enhance the operational safety and flood management capacity of the reservoir, the department would focus on critical infrastructure upgrade of hydro-mechanical equipment in the dam at a cost of ₹2.75 crore. Some of the works to be implemented includes, replacing the rope for gantry crane used to handle sluice gates and improvement of stoplog gates that work as emergency shutters.

The WRD will change old motors to ensure smooth operation of the 14 shutters. This work is one of the 254 projects worth a total of ₹1,321 crore that was recently sanctioned by the State government to be implemented across Tamil Nadu.

Officials said tender will soon be called for the work that is expected to be completed before the onset of Northeast monsoon in October. “We also plan to carry out slope protection works along the surplus course that has a capacity to carry nearly 1.20 lakh cubic feet per second of water. It joins Kosasthalaiyar river,” said an official.

This work would help safe discharge of surplus water from the reservoir and prevent bund erosion and flooding in downstream villages, including Nambakkam and Krishnapuram.