Stalin inaugurates Athikadavu-Avinashi project

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday (August 17, 2024) inaugurated the Athikadavu-Avinashi project, which aims to fill 1,045 water bodies and irrigate 24,468 acres of farmlands in Erode, Tiruppur, and Coimbatore districts.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday (August 17, 2024) inaugurated the Athikadavu-Avinashi project, which aims to fill 1,045 water bodies and irrigate 24,468 acres of farmlands in Erode, Tiruppur, and Coimbatore districts.

Mr. Stalin, in the presence of Minister for Water Resources Duraimurugan, commissioned the project via video conferencing from the Secretariat in Chennai.

The Athikadavu-Avinashi Ground Water Recharge and Drinking Water Supply Scheme, estimated at ₹1,916.41 crore, would draw 1.5 TMC surplus water in a year from the downstream of Kalingarayan anicut in the Bhavani river at the rate of 250 cusecs for 70 days. This would be done through six pumping stations and 1,065-km-long underground pipelines. A total of 32 Water Resources Department tanks, 42 panchayat union tanks, and 971 ponds in the three districts would be filled, in addition to irrigating the farmlands.

In 1972, the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi decided to implement the project, which had been a long-pending demand of farmers in Coimbatore district. Due to a change of government, the project came to a standstill in 1976. After Mr. Karunanidhi assumed office in 1996, his government carried out inspections and gave the approval for the project. Though the foundation stone was laid in 2019, it was only after Mr. Stalin came to power in 2021 that the project cost was revised and works were expedited and completed, an official release said.

The Minister for Housing and Urban Development S. Muthusamy, Minister for Information and Publicity M.P. Swaminathan, Erode MP K.E. Prakash, MLAs A.G. Venkatachalam (Anthiyur), C. Saraswathi (Modakkurichi), and E.R. Eswaran (Tiruchengodu), Mayor S. Nagarathinam, Collectors Raja Gopal Sunkara (Erode), T. Christuraj (Tiruppur), and Kranthi Kumar Pati (Coimbatore) were among the dignitaries present at the first pumping station in Bhavani.