The Water Resources Department (WRD) will soon start the restoration of the infrastructure at Chembarambakkam reservoir that was affected during Cyclone Michaung last year. The work will start in about a month.
The waterbody, one of major water sources feeding drinking water to Chennai, bore the brunt of the December floods. The Department is in preparation to carry out improvement works to strengthen the flood-damaged infrastructure.
Spread across an area of 25.51 sq.km., the reservoir presently has a storage capacity of 1,522 million cubic feet against its total capacity of 3,645 mcft.
Officials of the WRD said the portions of stone pitching, which is used for slope protection in the bund (close to the shutters), were damaged during the Northeast monsoon last year. If left unattended, it would further affect the bund and the storage capacity of the reservoir.
Permanent solution
In an effort for a permanent solution, the Department will replace the stone pitching in the bund slope with concrete for a total stretch of 500 metre on both sides of the shutters. Besides improvements to the parapet wall along the top layer of the bund, repair works of the floodgates would also be completed before the onset of the Northeast monsoon, said officials.
Two inlet channels bringing flood water from other waterways and waterbodies into the reservoir would be improved as part of the ₹22.95 crore project. The 7.1 km-long New Bangaru channel, which branches out from Cooum river, and the channel that brings flood water from Sriperumbudur tank and other upstream areas would also be desilted and improved, officials said.
Besides repairing the reservoir’s two weirs that suffered damages during last monsoon, the WRD also plans to construct flood protection wall for a total stretch of 400 metres in the surplus course. This would help alleviate the impact of flooding in the neighbouring villages when the reservoir’s floodgates are opened.
