While the Water Resources Department pushes ahead with the ambitious Mamallan reservoir project to meet Chennai’s growing water needs, another key initiative — a proposed reservoir across the Orathur tributary of the Adyar river — has remained incomplete for nearly three years.
Conceived as a flood-mitigation measure and to augment water supply, the project has run into stumbling blocks, including pending court cases, stalling progress on the ground.
The ₹55.84-crore project, which was initiated in 2020, aims at merging Orathur and Arambakkam tanks, and Orathur tributary to form a new reservoir. While the project was envisaged to be completed by 2021, only 68% of the work has been completed so far owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, delay in land acquisition, and transfer of alternate lands to the owners.
Pending bund work
Officials of the WRD said that work to build 490 metres of the 2,875-m-long connecting bund between the two waterbodies remained pending, as acquisition of private lands has not been completed.
