CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has asked Andhra Pradesh to rlease Krishna water only from May as the city’s reservoirs have good storage.
As of Monday, the four reservoirs including Veeranam tank that supply water to Chennai have a combined storage level of about nine thousand million cubic feet (tmcft).
A senior PWD official said, "Earlier, we thought of asking our counterparts in Andhra Pradesh to release the water by April. But, considering the water storage in the reservoirs (about 9 tmcft) as of Monday, we changed the plan as excess flow will lead to storage difficulty. By the end of this month, the storage may touch 8tmcft. We have asked for 6tmcft of water over a period of 7-8 months. This will fill up all the four reservoirs — Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam — and we will have enough water."
The available water can be utilised for distribution by Metrowater for the next eight months. Taking into account the evaporation loss per day, which will be less than 1% of the total quantity of stored water, the available water can sustain for the next eight months without any difficulty. Once the Krishna water flows in, the water levels will touch 11tmcft before the onset of monsoon, the official explained.
As of Monday, the combined storage in the four reservoirs stood at 8,684 mcft, excluding Veeranam, which has 564 mcft. This adds up to 9 tmcft.
Poondi has a storage of 1,970mcft as against its full capacity of 3,231mcft; Cholavaram has 519mcft and its full capacity is 1,081mcft; Red Hills has 2,930 mcft as against its full capacity of 3,300mcft; Kannankottai Thervaikandigai has 497mcft and it full capacity is 500mcft. The Chembarambakkam has 2,768mcft against its full capacity of 3,645mcft, the official said.
