Chennai’s new source of water: Five things to know about Thervoy Kandigai reservoir

Amid the controversies around the Vel Yatra scheduled by the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, the entire state machinery is gearing up to welcome Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah to Chennai on November 21. During his visit, he is expected to inaugurate a few infrastructure projects in Tamil Nadu, including laying the foundation stones for the Phase 2 of Chennai Metro Rail and a flyover on Coimbatore-Avinashi road.

Amit Shah will also declare a new reservoir open in the outskirts of Chennai on Saturday. This reservoir, in Thervoy Kandigai village, around 60 kilometres from the capital city, will supply water exclusively for the needs of the residents of Chennai. This will also be the fifth major reservoir in the outskirts of Chennai, after Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam.

Here are a few important things about the new reservoir.

1. The Thervoy Kandigai reservoir has been constructed at a cost of Rs 380 crore and around 1,485 acres of land was acquired by the government for this project. The project was launched in 2013 and combines two lakes, Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai, in Thiruvallur district.
2. The project came to a standstill within a year of its launch due to land acquisition problems. The work resumed in 2018 and was expected to be completed in a year. However, that got delayed and the lake will finally be dedicated to the public on Saturday.
3. The reservoir will serve the drinking water needs of the residents of Chennai and will store water from river Krishna. The reservoir will receive Krishna water from a 8.6 km-long canal that will draw water from the Kandaleru-Poondi canal.
4. Thervoy Kandigai reservoir will have a storage capacity of 1 tmcft of water, when filled twice a year. It will be able to supply 66 million litres a day (MLD) of water to Chennai city.
5. With this reservoir, the combined capacity of all the five reservoirs in the outskirts of Chennai will be at 11.75 tmcft.