Linking of rivers is a possibility now. If the State and the Centre can fund a link canal, the Cauvery can be linked to the Vaigai in five years.
A fortnight ago, the first significant step towards the linking of the Cauvery, Vaigai and Gundar rivers was made with the commissioning of a barrage across the Cauvery at Mayanur near here.
Built not very far from Kulithalai, where the river is at its widest (‘Akanda Cauvery’), the barrage will hold, for a height of five metres, surplus and rainwater flows, which will otherwise drain into the sea.
The barrage itself, with a water spread area of seven km, will help to stabilise irrigation of 1.11 lakh acres. Importantly, the barrage will form the head of a new link canal proposed to a distance of 250 km to carry the surplus waters from the Cauvery to the Agniyaru, the South Vellar, the Manimutharu, the Vaigai and the Gundar under the intra-State river linking programme.
The National Water Development Agency has proposed a gravity canal from Mayanur to irrigate 3.37 lakh hectares in Karur, Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram districts. About 6,000 cusecs of surplus water is planned to be diverted through the canal, which will also become a vital part of irrigation infrastructure as and when the inter-basin water transfer proposals, made under the peninsular rivers development programme, are executed.
When the river-linking programme becomes a reality, the barrage will help to divert 5.40 tmc at times of floods in the Cauvery to the drought-prone southern districts.
Sources in the Public Works Department say the estimates prepared for the canal are being revised, as the project involves extensive acquisition of land, mostly farmland, and in view of the revised norms for compensation to landowners.
It could still be a long way to go for the intra-state river linking programme. The NWDA proposal, based on the 2003-04 rates, estimated that the construction of the canal would entail a capital investment of Rs.2,673 crore.
Though the PWD is yet to finalise the cost, indications are that the project could now require Rs.10,000 crore. If funds are available, the project can be completed in five years, official sources say.
