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Tamil Nadu moots pipeline to Poondi, to approach AP

Chennai: The city may be able to realise double the quantity of water from the Telugu Ganga project, if the state government’s plan to lay a pipeline from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh to the Poondi reservoir becomes a reality.

Such a move can reduce water pilferage, a major loss for the state each year.

Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday announced that the government was planning to approach the Andhra Pradesh government in this regard.

Currently, the water flows through an open canal from Kandaleru in Nellore district, travelling 152km to reach zero point in Uthukottai, and another 17km to reach Poondi reservoir. By the time it reaches Red Hills reservoir for supply to Chennai city, it travels more than 200km from Kandaleru, said a Metrowater official.

When the agreement was signed by the two states in the late 1970s, a senior Metrowater official said, it was on the condition that the water be allowed to flow through an open canal so that farmers along the canal on the Andhra Pradesh stretch could use it for irrigation.

“However, after water began to be released from Kandaleru [in the early 1980s], a huge quantity was pilfered and not even 50% of the water released reached Tamil Nadu,” he said.

In 2002, spiritual leader Sai Baba of Puttaparthi gave a private undertaking that the canal would be cleaned to ensure that the water pilferage or leakage is checked.

The restoration of the Kandaleru-Poondi canal began in July 2002 and was completed in November 2004 and it was renamed Sai Ganga.

Finally, after the sluice gates of the Kandaleru reservoir were opened, water reached Poondi reservoir in a record four days against the 8-10 days it usually took.

After the initial days of unhindered flow, however, things returned to ‘normal’. Fifteen years later. the Metrowater official said, pilferage continues to be a major problem. For instance, when 1,200 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water is released from Kandaleru, the water realised in Poondi is only 800 cusecs, or a little more than 60%, he said.

It is to correct this that the proposal to lay a pipeline from Kandaleru to Poondi reservoir in Tiruvallur district was made, he said. If the plan fructifies, the pilferage/leakage will be reduced to zero and the entire quantity released at Kandaleru can be realised at Poondi, boosting to supply to Chennai city, he added.

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