Tamil Nadu CM Stalin Launches Athikadavu-Avinashi Irrigation Scheme

Though the initial steps for the scheme, based on the demands of the farmers of the three districts, were taken way back in 1972 by the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the work stopped after 1976. Again when the DMK came to power, Karunanidhi revived the work in 1996 but his government was again dismissed.

Then the work on the scheme began in 2019 during the AIADMK regime and it received an impetus in 2021 with the DMK government revising it and finally completing it at a total cost of Rs 1,916.41 crore.

Envisaged to take the excess water from Kalingarayan check dam at a rate of 205 cusecs for 70 days a year through a series of six pumping stations, the project would not only irrigate 24,468 acres of land but also supply drinking water to the people of the three districts.

The pumped water would be taken through underground pipelines covering a distance of 1065 km to 1045 water bodies - 32 tanks belonging to the Water Resources Department, 42 tanks owned by panchayat union and 971 other tanks - for meeting the needs of people.

In a message on X, Stalin said the scheme launched by Karunanidhi ran into trouble due to change in government and in 2016, when the people of the region sat on an indefinite hunger strike, he had visited them and given an assurance that it would be implemented when the DMK came to power.

Though the work on the project began in 2019, it picked up momentum only after the DMK came to power in 2021 when the administrative agreement was revised.

However, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in his message on X, said that 90 per cent of the work on the scheme was completed during the AIADMK rule when the project cost was worked out at 1652 crore.

He said the DMK government completed it after three years of delay by spending an additional Rs 250 crore.