Chennai benefits from Sai Baba's initiative - Article from The Hindu

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Wednesday, Dec 01, 2004

URL: http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/01/stories/2004120113280300.htm

 

 

Chennai benefits from Sai Baba's initiative

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, NOV. 30. In January 2002, the Sathya Sai Baba announced that he would

launch a project to solve Chennai's water shortage, promising to make available

Rs. 200 crores for the project. The spadework to improve the Kandaleru-Poondi

Canal carrying Krishna water to Chennai began soon after.

A few months later, the Andhra Pradesh Government gave permission to Sai Baba

for carrying out the work independent of any Government involvement except for

"supervision here and there." Larsen & Toubro carried out the project, which

began in October 2002 and was completed by the end of 2003.

On November 27, when Krishna water reached Tamil Nadu within four days from the

date of release (November 23), the benefits of the project became clearly

apparent. Chennai was reaping the benefits of the improvement work carried out

at Sai Baba's initiative - and not surprisingly, the waterway is called the

Sathya Sai Ganga canal.

The realisation today at the Zero Point was about 480 cubic feet per second

(cusecs), the highest since the commissioning of the Krishna Water Supply

Project in 1996 with the rate of realisation rising substantially.

A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department points out that on

three occasions — October 2000, January 2001 and October 2002 — the Andhra

Pradesh authorities, on a trial basis, released 1,100 cusecs from Kandaleru

dam, the terminal storage point in the neighbouring State which feeds the

supply to Chennai. Not even 40 per cent of the water released reached the

border with Tamil Nadu, lying at the 152-km point of the Kandaleru-Poondi

Canal. The receipt was about 440 cusecs.

"This time, the discharge from Kandaleru is 1,000 cusecs and are getting 483

cusecs," the official said, adding that the Sathya Sai Baba's initiative had

made a big difference.

"Thanks to Sai Baba, the canal has been lined for a length of 65 km. Other

improvements have also been carried out. Today, they have shown wonderful

results," says C.H. Vijaya Kumar Reddy, Andhra Pradesh's chief engineer in

charge of the Krishna Water Supply Project.

K. Kondal Rao, engineer-expert attached to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust,

nodal agency for the project, said that bund strengthening works were done at

Kandaleru to increase the storage. Further, "escape structures" were

constructed at three places along the canal to ensure the discharge of excess

water from the canal. "All these works have ensured quicker realisation and

more flow of Krishna water to Chennai. Earlier, it took more than 10 days for

the water to reach Tamil Nadu. This time, it was just four days."

2004, The Hindu.

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