CHENNAI: The public hearing for the first phase of the Tamil Nadu government's ambitious Cauvery-Gundar river linking project will take place on February 25-26.
The project involves building a flood carrier canal from Cauvery (Kattalai) to South Vellar river to divert the flood water for drinking water needs and recharging groundwater in the drought prone areas of Karur, Trichy and Pudukkottai districts.
The public hearing in Trichy is scheduled to be conducted on February 25 at the district collectorate and in Pudukkottai and Karu it will be held on February 26 at the respective district collectorates.
Officials told The New Indian Express that the Cauvery-Gundar link scheme will be executed in three phases. In the first phase, it is proposed to build a 118.450 km flood carrier canal up to South Vellar for which a public hearing has been announced now. It will inter-connect Cauvery from the Mayanur barrage with South Vellar through the main rivers en route -- Pungar, Koraiyar, Agniyar and South Vellar.
It is proposed to divert the flood flow from Cauvery river released from Mettur, Bhavani and Amaravathi reservoirs, received at the Mayanur barrage through the flood carrier canal. Kulathur, Pudukkottai and Thirumayam taluks of Pudukkottai district, Krishnarayapuram and Kulithalai taluks of Karur district and Tiruverumbur and Srirangam taluk of Trichy will be benefiting from the project.
"Besides fulfilling domestic and agricultural demand, by diverting 6000 cusecs (169.9 cumecs) of flood water from Koraiyar after utilization in that basin, through this flood canal, flooding of habitations of Trichy and Srirangam towns will be avoided. On the other hand, the flood carrier canal will convey surplus water to the water deficit anicut and tanks at the downstream side. The total command area to be benefitted is 18,566 hectares," the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study of the project says.
The application for prior environmental clearance was submitted to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on July 10, 2020. The draft Terms of Reference for the EIA study were issued on November 11, 2020.
Officials said an extent of 1,320.332 hectares of land is to be acquired for the project. Out of the total land, 1141.954 hectares is patta land and the remaining is poramboke land. The project cost has been estimated at Rs 6,941 crore.