Karapuzha project still in limbo.

Despite more than Rs.300 crore having been spent on the Karapuzha irrigation project in the district over the past three decades, the commissioning of the project remains a distant dream, thanks to the lack of coordination between officials of various government departments.

This is the first such project that was planned with a view to utilise 2.7 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water of the 21 tmcft awarded to the State by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal under the Kabani river basin.

The project envisages a dam across the Karapuzha river (a tributary of the Cauvery), a reservoir, and channels to irrigate 5,221 hectares in nine panchayats in three taluks. But it could irrigate only 610 hectares even after the partial commissioning of the reservoir in 2010.

Project cost

When the project was launched in 1980, the preliminary estimate was Rs.7.6 crore, but as much as Rs.304 crore has been spent on the project so far.

The revised estimate shows that Rs.429 crore is needed for the completion of the irrigation project.

As much as 1,238 ha of the 1,250 ha have been acquired for the reservoir and 126 ha acquired for the channels.

“The alleged laxity of Revenue officials in acquiring the remaining land for the reservoir is the major reason for the delay in its commissioning,” Irrigation Department sources say.

“Hence we have stored only 36.78 million cubic metres of water in the reservoir as against the total water storage capacity of 76.5 million cubic metres,” the sources added.

The construction work of the main canals, measuring 25.54 km, was completed nearly three decades ago, but the full potential of the dam was yet to be utilised owing to the delay in commissioning, recurring breaches on the decades-old channels and dearth of distribution channels, the sources said.

“Now we are planning to provide water for irrigation on 1,200 ha next year and construction work for five huge drinking water projects in many grama panchayats in Sulthan Bathery and Vythiri taluks is under way. The delay in commissioning will adversely affect all the works,” the sources added.

The Hindu