The Tamil Nadu government will build a memorial to symbolise its “gratitude and thanksgiving” to the late British engineer Col John Pennycuick, who had steered the construction of the Mullaperiyar dam to divert the surplus west-flowing waters of Mulla and Periyar rivers in Western Ghats to the five drought-prone districts of the state.

Announcing this here on Sunday, Chief Minister J Jayalalitha said that the memorial on 2,500 sq ft spread and with a life-size statue of Pennycuick will be built at a cost of Rs 1 crore within the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board complex at Lower Camp in Theni district, bordering the dam site.

The “large-hearted and compassionate” late British Army engineer and civil servant, moved by the plight of the people of five southern districts of Tamil Nadu—Theni, Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram—facing near-famine conditions, had led the construction of the Mullaperiyar reservoir “overcoming great obstacles and even by raising personal funds by selling his property in England to complete the project in time,” she said.