PUDUKKOTTAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will lay the foundation stone for the Cauvery-Vellaru-Vaigai-Gundar Link scheme on Sunday. He will be inaugurating the Rs 6,941 crore-first phase of the project at Kunathur in Viralimalai. The project is a long-held dream of the people from Tamil Nadu’s southern districts.
The first phase of the project will connect the surplus Cauvery water from Mayanur Dam in Karur through the arid areas in Tiruchy, Pudukkottai, Sivagangai and Virudhunagar districts with the Gundar River. Under this, a 118.45 km canal will be constructed from Kattalai Canal to South Vellaru in Pudukkottai and will irrigate 42,170 acres of agricultural land and 342 lakes in Karur, Tiruchy and Pudukkottai.
The second phase will benefit 220 lakes and 23,245 acres of land in Pudukkottai, Sivagangai, Ramanathapuram. A 109-km long canal will be constructed from south Vellaru to Vaigai.
In the third phase, 492 lakes and 44,547 acres of land in Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram will benefit through a 34-km long canal from Vaigai to Gundar.
The Rs 14,400 crore, 262-km river-linking project will divert 6,300 cubic feet of surplus water during floods and increase the groundwater levels in southern districts to meet drinking water needs.
The Chief Minister will also be inaugurating a Rs 3,384 crore project to reconstruct, expand and renovate irrigation infrastructure in the Cauvery sub-basin. This will ensure that 4,67,345 acres of agricultural lands get water for irrigation from 987 km-long 21 rivers in Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai.
The oldest irrigation structures in Cauvery delta will be equipped with SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) technology at a cost of Rs 72 crores. The project will increase the irrigation capacity by 20%.