Athikadavu Avinashi Project

The Athikadavu Avinashi Scheme envisages providing irrigation facilities to the drought prone areas and ground water depleted areas in 71 Nos. of tanks and 538 nos. of percolation ponds respectively in 9 taluks of Erode, Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts. Besides, the scheme shall also aim for recharging the tanks and ponds in Ground water critical block of Nambiyur and semi-critical block of Perundurai. The scheme has Gross command area (GCA) and Culturable command area (CCA) of AbOUT 9446.44 ha. In the proposed scheme the main canal off takes is to be constructed across Bhavani river near village Thondai at a latitude of 11°14’16.71” N and longitude of 76°46’59.89” E. The main offtake is to be located at 5 km upstream side of Pillur dam which is located at 70 km from Coimbatore district. The main canal and two branch canals namely, Avinashi branch canal and Perundurai branch canal passes through Mettupalayam, Coimbatore North and Annur taluks of Coimbatore District, Sulur, Avinashi and Uthukuli Taluks of Tiruppur District, and Sathyamangalam, Gobichettipalayam and Perundurai taluks of Erode District respectively in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Aim(s) of the project

• Ground water recharge
• Improvement in agriculture productivity and income of farmers
• Environment benefits through Improved water use efficiently by promotion of conjunctive use of surface and ground water.
• Community participation and self-supporting system for sustainable management for water body.
• Capacity building of communities in better water management.
• To benefit the dry areas of Tiruppur, Erode and Coimbatore district.

History of the project

1834 - The idea of utilising the water of the Bhavani River to benefit the dry areas of Coimbatore District was envisaged by Sir Arthur Cotton

1905 - Two alternative schemes investigated - one to have a storage reservoir in the Upper reaches of Bhavani River called the Upper Bhavani Project to benefit Avinashi, Palladam, Dharapuram, Udumalpet and Coimbatore taluks and the other lower down, called the Lower Bhavani Project, to serve Gobichettipalayam, Erode, Bhavani and Dharapuram taluks of the then Coimbatore District. After examining the two proposals, it was finally decided to go in for the Lower Bhavani Project which had more dependable yield for new irrigation. Under this scheme, no benefits accrued to the people in Avinashi Taluk.

1957 - Two schemes were considered for giving irrigation facilities for the Avinashi Taluk by utilising the tail race waters of Pillur Reservoir . It was named as the Upper Bhavani Project. This could said as the stating point for the athikadavu avinashi project.

1968 - Considered that a scheme with restricted benefits only would be practical and utilisation under Avinashi scheme could be about 3000 Mcft. from the Kundah tail race waters, for which a preliminary report was sent to the Government. Two alternatives were considered – one as an all wet scheme and the other as a dry scheme. The scheme was however deferred by the Government in G.O.Ms.No.2124 PWD dt.26.11.1969.

1972 - Upper Bhavani project was rechristened (renamed) as Athikadavu – Avanashi Ground Water Recharge Project

1975 - Proposed to limit the benefits only to the areas which can be served by a gravity canal talking off from the river below Pillur Dam from a diversion weir, about 1 km (5 furlongs) downstream of the Pillur Dam. The total area proposed for irrigation under the canal was 8903 ha (22000 acres) dry, including 809 ha (2000 acres) of wet lands under the existing tanks. This proposal also could not be proceeded with.

1999 – 2000 - There was a demand for executing a scheme for diverting water from Bhavani River to fill in the existing tanks to ensure drinking water to several villages in the Avinashi Taluk by recharge. Since filling in minor irrigation tanks will only mean stabilization or expansion of irrigation and since the TWAD Board had indicated that they have already covered all the villages in the area under the drinking water scheme, the Cauvery Technical cell could not give its consent for such a drinking water scheme, as it may not be favoured in the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal treating it as extension of ayacut in the Bhavani Sub-basin.

2002 - Plan Formulation department prepared a Feasibility Report for the diversion of 2 TMC of water from the west flowing Pandiar river so as to augment the Athikadavu Avinashi drinking water scheme, by constructing a dam across Pandiyar river and excavating a tunnel of 27.2 km to Sigur river, a tributary of Moyar river. It was considered that it may not be possible to execute this scheme involving interstate issues and other practical difficulties including mining such a long costly tunnel.

2009 - During the submission of Budget for the year 2009-2010 in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, it was announced that an Expert committee is formed and headed by Thiru. A.Mohanakrishnan, Chairman, Cauvery Technical Cell to analyse the long pending demand of farmers in Coimbatore and Erode districts to implement Athikadavu – Avinashi Flood Flow Canal Scheme. Expert Committee presented its report to the Government on 31.10.2009. The Government has accepted the recommendations of the Expert Committee and requested the PWD to conduct a detailed investigation and send a report along with rough cost estimate to Government. Based on the above instruction, the project investigation on Athikadavu-Avinashi Flood flow Canal Scheme was taken up. The estimate was prepared for an amount of Rs.1862.00 Crore for the year 2011-12 and sent to Govt. of India for financial assistance under flood management programme. The Central Water Commission communicated its comment on the estimate stating that this proposal may be considered as an irrigation project since the scheme aims to fill up tanks and ponds.

2013-since the time delay, the cost of the project have extraordinarily shot up from 1862.00 crores to exorbitant amounts and became a question mark on the viability of the project in terms of cost benefit ratio.

2015 - An alternative cost effective new efficient proposal was submitted by Federation for groundwater recharge scheme(FAAST), which was designed meticulously with lots of efforts by Pwd Senior Engineers Association to the government through the principal secretary pwd in his office on 29 October 2015.The proposal was to bring water through pipeline instead of the open canal which reduced the cost to just below Rs950.00 crores and became a game-changer in terms of the viability of the project.The new proposal not only reduced the cost but also the land required for acquisition to a bare minimum.It had also the advantages for stopping evaporation loss.It had eliminated the drawbacks of supplying the water only during monsoon for twenty days by creating a storage point at velliangadu .

2016 - As the project was delaying the public were getting desperate to get the project implemented at the earliest. A historic event of Fasting protest was started at Avinashi by a group of 14 people in the month of February. The group was determined not to stop the fast until a concrete assurance from the govt on the implementation of the scheme. It motivated the youngsters in many more places like sevur, annur, perumanallur,panayampalli, and kunnathur.Thousands and thousands of people gathered at the fasting site which had a human sea of protest. lots of media coverage happened on the issue and all the political leaders rallied behind the cause. In nutshell it was this protest fasting which led for kick starting of the project which was shelved for more than half century and made the project to move. This marked a huge turnning point in the history of athikadavu avinashi scheme. one day protest was held for first time at Chennai to echo the sentiments and highlight the greatness of the team who have undergone more than 14 days fast at Avinashi and different parts of the nearby areas, was well attended by politicalleaders and took the issue to state capital. Tamil Nadu government has accorded administrative sanction for an amount of Rs.3.27 Crore for carrying out the immediate requisite works. At the end of 2016 different organisations working under different banners came together under one name as athikadavu avinashi porata kullu kootamaippu and started spreading its wings in every village of the region.To say in nutshell the fasting provided to be a game-changer in terms of the project getting kickstarted, without which the project could have been dragged to longer times without any logical conclusion.

2017 - One day remembrance event was organised by athikadavu avinashi poratta kullu kootamaipu (AAWS) to mark one year anniversary of the fast was conducted at avinashi which turned out to be a historical event with huge number of supporters gathering at the event. Athikadavu avinashi thitta poratta kullu Kootamaipu(AAWS) branches were aggressively started in avinashi, thekkalur, karuvalur, annur, sevur, nambiyur-puliampatti, naduvacheri,malayapalayam, and perundurai areas.AAWS work was unique and extraordinary in terms of creating awareness among the public. AAWS Team gave their time and energy with pure dedication and hard work to make the project a reality. The openings were very grand enough with wide participation by general public taking out gala rallies in vehicles of their own.It used to be a historic event and an example of all struggles. AAWS had unleashed the tremendous potential among the public and beautifully coordinated their sentiments. Tamil Nadu government allocated Rs 250 crore in the budget for carrying out the groundwork for the project.

Project locations and canal system

In the proposed scheme, following are the key features of the canal system:

• Main canal offtakes at 5 km upstream side of pillur dam of Coimbatore district to a Length 32.52 km ends at Achampalayam village and from there, two branch canals offtakes
  • Avinashi branch canal at right offtake to a length of 21.650 km
  • Perundurai branch canal offtake at left to a length of 72.915 km
    • Kanuvakkarai subbranch canal offtakes at Vadakkalur village to a length of 5.3 km from Perundurai branch canal

Districts and Taluks benefited

References

• ATHIKADAVU – AVINASHI IRRIGATION, GROUND WATER RECHARGE AND DRINKING WATER SUPPLY SCHEME, Project Report by PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT and WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT of GOVERNMENT OF TAMILNADU

External links

Federation For Athikadavu Avinashi Groundwater Recharge Scheme 1