Chennai will get Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh in April to help the metropolis meet the demand for drinking water during peak summer.
Thanks to the floods in the Krishna in several spells, the irrigation authorities had released 8.05 tmcft of water to the burgeoning city.
Record supply
“This is a record in water supply to Chennai city in a single year span,” say irrigation officials here.
During the water year, the Kandaleru Reservoir, which augments drinking water supply to, among other cities, Chennai and Tirupati, had received 65.144 tmcft from the Somasila Reservoir across the Penna for the first time after its construction.
The water release had been suspended at the request of the authorities in Chennai in view of the adequate storage to meet the needs of the residents and to carry out repairs to the canal carrying water from Kandaleru to Poondi.
“We will resume the water release to Chennai from April,” Telugu Ganga project Chief Engineer K. Harinarayana Reddy told The Hindu.
Good inflows
The twin major reservoirs in Nellore district had received record inflows during the water year. A quantum of 7.648 tmcft had been supplied to Chennai city during 2019-20 for drinking water purposes, he said.
Though Chennai is entitled to 12 tmcft of water with the three riparian States of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra contributing equally, its quota remains elusive during most of the years due to dwindling inflows into the reservoirs in the lower riparian State of Andhra Pradesh after construction of reservoirs in the upper riparian States.