Chennai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will dedicate the newly built Chennai’s fifth reservoir and lay the foundation stone for the second phase of Chennai Metro Rail project here today.
Shah, who would arrive here today afternoon, would participate in a government function to be held at Kalaivanar Arangam during which he would launch a slew of infrastructure projects involving a total outlay of Rs 67,000 crore in the presence of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief MinisterĀ O Panneerselvam, Ministers and officials.
During the 90-minute event, Amit Shah will dedicate the Rs 380 crore Thervoy Kandigai reservoir in neighbouring Tiruvallur district, lay the foundation stones for the phase II of Chennai Metro Rail at an estimated cost of Rs 61,843 crore.
The new reservoir was expected to further augment the drinking water requirements of this teeming megapolis, besides meeting the additional needs.
The reservoir, formed by combining two lakes, Thervoy Kandigai and Kannankottai, was spread across 1,495 acres and would be the fifth reservoir for the city, adding to the existing four main reservoirs–Poondi, Sholavaram, RedHills and Chembarambakkam–which together have a total storage capacity of 11,257 mcft.
The new reservoir would facilitate supply of 65 million litres a day (MLD) water to the city and the project would raise the combined water storage in the lakes by 1,000 mcft.
Besides the Phase II 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, a new Rs 900 crore facility at Kamarajar Port, a check dam with sluice gates across Cauvery river in Karur district at a cost of Rs 406 crore, expansion of Chennai Trade Centre at Rs 309 crore, an official release said.
The phase II Metro project will cover 118.9 km with three corridors, Madhavaram to SIPCOT, Madhavaram to Sholinganallur and Light House to Poonamallee as CMRLwas awaiting funding from the Centre for the project.
For the Rs 60,000-crore project, CMRL will get financial assistance from the State government and various international funding agencies like the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and others.