Rs 3,560 cr for flood control, drinking water

CHENNAI: Giving an impetus to various disaster management projects and drinking water supply schemes, the state government has allocated around Rs 3,560 crore in its 2020-2021 budget estimates.

Anticipating an early approval from the Asian Development Bank, which would fund the integrated stormwater drain network of 765 km in Kosasthalaiyar River basin, the government has made a provisional allocation of Rs 350 crore for the year 2020-2021. The project would be implemented at a cost of Rs 2,518 crore by the Greater Chennai Corporation.

Apart from this, Deputy Chief Minister and State Finance Minister O Panneerselvam announced that Chennai Coastal Flood Warning System (C-FLOWS) has been developed for multi-hazard early warning in the Greater Chennai Corporation areas.

“The government has proposed a comprehensive flood mitigation project for Greater Chennai to the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank at a total cost of Rs 3,000 crore,” the announcement said. Apart from this, a grant of Rs 100 crore has been recommended by the 15th Finance Commission for Chennai city to manage the risk of urban floods. The budget document also revealed that the state disaster response and management fund is much lesser than the average recommended for the 18 major states.

In the budget estimates, Rs 750 crore has been provided for the Integrated Urban Development Mission (IUDM) and Rs 500 crore for Chennai Mega City Development Mission (CMCDM) for the next financial year.

Water supply schemes

Construction works of new desalination plant at Nemmeli with a capacity of 150 MLD (million litres per day) to be expedited as the state government has allocated Rs 500 crore for 2020-2021. The project is being implemented with as assistance of KfW (German Development Bank) at a total cost of Rs 1,259.38 crore.

Also, Rs 156.15 crore has been provided for 400 MLD desalination plant at Perur.