Shah to dedicate reservoir for Chennai, lay foundation stones for over Rs 67,000 cr infra projects

Chennai Nov 17: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will dedicate the Rs 380 crore Thervoy Kandigai reservoir in neighbouring Tiruvallur district, and lay the foundation stones for a slew of infrastructure projects worth over Rs 67,000 crore during his visit here on Saturday.

Also, Shah will lay the foundation stone for the phase II of Chennai Metro Rail at an estimated cost of Rs 61,843 crore at a function here in which chief minister K Palaniswami would preside, an official release said on Tuesday.

Deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, ministers and officials would participate in the event. The much-delayed reservoir in Tiruvallur district, formed by combining two lakes-- Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai, is expected to meet Chennai's additional requirement for drinking water.

Spread across 1,495 acres, it will serve as the fifth reservoir for the city and may help avert drought-like situation. It would facilitate the supply of 65 million litres a day (MLD) water to the city and the project will raise the combined storage of water in the lakes feeding the metro by 1,000 mcft, a Public Works Department (PWD) official said.

At present the four main reservoirs--Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam have a total storage capacity of 11,257 mcft. Besides the phase II project of Chennai Metro Rail, Shah would also lay the foundation stones for the Coimbatore- Avinashi elevated expressway project, Indian Oil Corporation's petroleum terminal at Vallur and a Rs 1400 crore Lube Plant at Amullaivoyal among others, the release said.