WRD to float tender for improving channels that drain into Adyar river

Water Resources Department to float tenders for Manapakkam and Gerugambakkam channel improvements to prevent inundation in localities.

Continuing its efforts to restore minor channels draining into the Adyar river, the Water Resources Department will soon float tenders to improve portions of Manapakkam and Gerugambakkam channels. The projects aim at mitigating inundation in neighbouring localities.

The department had implemented various initiatives worth ₹84.93 crore to rejuvenate minor channels, including Kolapakkam channel, last year. The new projects would mark the final leg of these schemes.

WRD officials said work to bridge the missing link between Manapakkam channel and Adyar river had begun last year with a channel being formed on the land belonging to the Officers Training Academy (OTA). Work on the remaining portion of the channel from the OTA premises to Adyar river would be taken up at a cost of ₹9.4 crore, they said.

The channel would be improved as a concrete waterway to minimise silt and ensure smooth flow. Besides building an inlet to the river, the department would also construct flood protection wall along the stretch to avoid spillover into surrounding areas. The waterway would have the capacity to carry 300-350 cusecs of water, officials said.

The 7-km-long Manapakkam channel passes through localities downstream of the Chembarambakkam reservoir before joining the Adyar river. But, insufficient floodwater-carrying capacity and missing links, like the one near OTA, often led to inundation in nearby areas.

The State government has also allocated ₹3.5 crore for a project to build flood protection wall in vulnerable portions of the 3-km long Gerugambakkam channel. Officials said the flood retaining wall was being built along the waterway in phases to prevent surplus water from inundating areas such as Mahalakshmi Nagar in Mugalivakkam and Azhwancherry.

Residents raised concern on the damage to their compound walls owing to the absence of a flood retaining wall. Soil from vacant lands abutting the channel silted it up, an official said. The department plans to complete the projects by the onset of the Northeast monsoon in October.