M K Stalin inaugurates 60-year-old dream project of Athikadavu-Avinashi

Chennai: The six decade-old dream project of ensuring water for agriculture besides meeting the drinking water needs of the people of three districts in Tamil Nadu - the Athikadavu Avinashi project - came in to use on Saturday.

The Rs 1,916.41 crore project aiming to recharge the groundwater and fill the water bodies in Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode districts was virtually commissioned by Chief Minister M K Stalin from the Secretariat here.

The scheme was originally conceived six decades ago. Former Chief Minister and DMK leader M Karunanidhi took the first initiative in 1972. Later, AIADMK leader and then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami took up the project and launched the works in 2019.

The scheme gained further momentum after M K Stalin became Chief Minister in the 2021 Assembly elections.

“The project was put on a fast track mode by the present Chief Minister and was completed recently, after successfully completing the trial run,” a senior official said.

About 1.5 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of surplus water from the downstream of Kalingarayan anicut of the Bhavani River at Kalingarayanpalayam in Erode will be diverted to fill 1,045 water bodies and to irrigate 24,468 acres of farm lands in Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts.

The 217-km long perennial Bhavani River, originating from the Nilgiris in the Western Ghats, is fed by both the southwest and northeast monsoons. The river enters Kerala and re-enters Athikadavu, a spot near Pilloor dam in Mettupalayam in Coimbatore district. The river then enters the Bhavanisagar dam in Erode district and traverses 75 km to join the Cauvery river at Bhavani.

As far back in 1957, the farmers made a representation to the then Chief Minister K Kamaraj to utilise the surplus water entering Cauvery to divert it through open canals and fill the dry pockets in the then Coimbatore district.

Originally, the project was named the Upper Bhavani project. In 1972, it was renamed as the Athikadavu Avinashi Ground Water Recharge and Drinking Water Supply Scheme and then Chief Minister Palaniswami announced the scheme in 2016-17 fiscal.

A technical committee was constituted under the chairmanship of A Mohanakrishnan, advisor to government, Water Resources, in 2009 for investigating the viability of the scheme. The panel suggested that 2 TMC ft water during the flood flow could be diverted.

Over the years, farmers, traders and political parties including the BJP protested demanding the speedy implementation of the project.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in February 2019 for Rs 1,652 crore and it was announced that it would be completed in 34 months.

Later, the project cost was revised to Rs 1,758.88 crore to fill up 32 tanks under the control of the Public Works Department (PWD), 42 union tanks and 971 ponds in the three districts.

It was finally completed at Rs 1,916.41 crore, though initially it was proposed for Rs 134 crore when it was conceived.

It has been executed on design, build, operate, and transfer basis and the contractor following the commissioning of the project, will operate and maintain it for 60 months.

The project work commenced in December 2019. Then CM Palaniswami accused the ruling DMK of not giving impetus to the project since it was initiated by the AIADMK government. Also, he claimed that the project could not be completed by his government due to regime change.

However, delay in acquiring lands, obtaining the “right to use” permission from farmers for laying the pipelines on their farm lands, and non-availability of surplus water had delayed the project, a source said.

BJP state chief K Annamalai, who had recently announced an indefinite protest by his party’s farmers wing demanding implementation of the project, had demanded compensation to the ryots for the “right to use” their lands for laying the pipelines.

The trial run was completed in January last year and damages to the feeder lines were rectified.

Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan, Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, chief secretary Shiv Das Meena, Water Resources department Principal Secretary K Manivasan and chief engineer and director general of state water resources management agency S Manmathan were present when the Chief Minister inaugurated the project from here.

State Housing and Urban Development Minister S Muthusamy, Information and Publicity Minister M P Swaminathan, and Erode collector Raj Gopal were among those present during the project commissioning from Erode.