TIRUCHI
Work on the renovation of the Kattalai High-Level Canal (KHLC), a major irrigation canal in Karur and Tiruchi districts, is just gathering momentum after being hit by the exodus of the migrant labourers to their home States during the lockdown.
The project has made slow progress so far after the North Indian labourers hired by the contractors left for their home states. The State government had sanctioned the extension, renovation and modernisation of the KHLC at an estimated cost of ₹335.50 crore, fulfilling a long-felt need of farmers.
The project began around May 15 after Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami laid the foundation stone in March and so far retaining walls have been built only for about 2.50 km and foundation concrete has been laid for about five km, downstream of the Mayanur.
Although the project is scheduled to be completed within two years, the non-Mettur season (when the dam is closed) offers the crucial window during a year when the work could be taken up in full swing.
With the work being affected over the past two months, one of the two windows has already been lost. Water for irrigation is likely to be released from August 1 in the canal, as farmers have been pressing for the same to enable them take up samba cultivation, and the major part of the works would resume only after the end of the irrigation season by January.
While conceding that the COVID 19 pandemic has impacted on the project work by causing a shortage of labour, PWD sources, however, said that the work had now been speeded up after the slowdown and locally available labourers had been mobilised for the purpose.
The KHLC, a contour canal built in 1934, carries water from the Cauvery river at Mayanur in Karur district to Thayanur in Tiruchi district, a distance of about 62 km, and irrigates 23,774 acres in Karur and Tiruchi districts. Of this, 20,186 acres were in Karur district and the remaining area came under Tiruchi district. The designed discharge at the head regulator of the canal is 411 cusecs.
Farmers dependent on the canal, especially those on the tail-end areas, have been demanding modernisation of the KHLC as they had been facing problems getting water for irrigation every season over the past several years.
A PWD note issued at the time of the foundation stone laying ceremony conceded that the water distribution system had become old and needed repair and replacement at many places. “The present condition of the water conveying arrangement and structures was bad and does not fulfill the irrigation water requirements. There is large scale wastage of water and thus the productivity is considerably low. There are considerable amount of erosion of bund leading to wastage of water. Further, the major portion of the channel and its branches got eroded and hence the bed level has gone down. Due to the dilapidated condition of structures, equitable distribution of water to tail end is impossible,” it said.
Of the 174 such regulatory structures on the canal, 124 will be modernised and 25 rehabilitated under the project. Apart from construction of retaining walls,concrete bed lining would be provided along the canal, except in leading canals. Once the project was completed, the system efficiency would improve to 60% from the current 40.43%, officials said.
“We are very glad that the project has finally taken off; we hope that the project will be executed expeditiously by carrying out the works simultaneously at four places as planned originally. As the pandemic has affected the project now, the PWD should take all necessary steps to execute the project on full swing when it resumes after the irrigation season,” said ‘Koundampatti’ R. Subramanian, deputy secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, who have long been lobbying for the modernisation of the canal.
PWD sources said all efforts would be made to complete the project next year by mobilising more labourers once the work resumes after the irrigation season.