Chennai SSS Water project progress of work
Article in The Hindu, Chennai dt.25 Jun.2003
By Hiramalini Seshadri (Sai Devotee)
Even as the taps run dry following the hottest summer in 93 years,
Chennai-ites have reason to celebrate. The Chennai Water Project of the
Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust is nearly 70% complete at the Andhra end. On
19 Jan.2002, Sri Sathya Sai Baba announced that He would do something to
provide drinking water to Chennai. Promptly, the Sri Sathya Sai Central
Trust, a non-denominational, non- political, non-profit Organisation swung
into action. Work on the Rs.200 crore project, which began in October2002,
involving over 4000 workers and 50 site engineers toiling round the clock,
is slated to be completed by August, this year.
By augmenting the canal's infrastructure and lining vulnerable
stretches of the canal, the Sathya Sai Project will ensure that Chennai
gets 12 tmcft of water. A spin-off of the project is that 3 lakh acres of
land in Nellore and Chittoor districts will also get irrigation from water
saved by stemming seepage loss.
The work involved lining of around 65 km of the 150 km canal,
building additional gates and storage tanks and increasing the capacity of
the Kandaleru reservoir from 16 tmcft to 68 tmcft. This has already
benefited Tirupathi town, for 1 tmcft of water was drawn from the
Kandaleru reservoir to the Kailasagiri reservoir to ease the recent acute
water shortage in the town.
Work on the Andhra leg of the canal was started after getting the
green signal from the Andhra Pradesh government. Quick to take the
cue, the Karnataka government also invited the Trust to take up water
projects in the state; and today people of drought ridden Medak
(Hyderabad) district have water, thanks to the Sri Sathya Sai Medak Water
Project.
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