“During intense rainfall, the lake gets full and without enough storage capacity, the water from the lake overflows and leads to flooding. If the lake is already full when water is being discharged from the Chembarambakkam dam, with the dam reaching its maximum capacity, then more flooding happens. To avoid such a flood situation in the coming days, we are planning to increase the storage capacity of the lake,” said a senior WRD official.

Once the lake storage level is brought to full capacity, officials said they will be able to identify the water level in the lake when there is excess rain and discharge water as is required.

The department is planning to improve the water capacity after desilting the lake. Besides, eco-restoration is also a part of the project. Already, the encroachments were cleared a few years ago. Now, only a few houses and shops are built, which will be removed once the approval of lake restoration is given. Even the sewage discharge into the water body from the residential areas will be prevented, and the bund will be strengthened.

“The project is yet to be approved by the government. After the project is sanctioned, we will start the preliminary work of restoration by clearing the encroachments,” said another WRD official.