The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Japanese bank agrees to fund Rs.1,340 cr. Hogenekkal water supply project

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Friday, Feb 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Japanese bank agrees to fund Rs.1,340 cr. Hogenekkal water supply project

T. Ramakrishnan

Project will benefit 30 lakh people initially and 40.4 lakh eventually

Stalin holds discussions with bank officials
Formal agreement to be signed this month

CHENNAI: With Japanese authorities informing Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin, who is on a visit to that country, about their decision to fund the Rs.1,340-crore Hogenekkal water supply project, a long-standing dream of the people of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts will be realised shortly.

The two districts, forming part of the backward regions in the State, have high concentration of fluoride in groundwater, besides being drought prone.

In 1998, when the Japanese authorities were about to clear the project, the Pokhran nuclear experiments came in their way. Two years ago, the State government approached the Centre to forward the project to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Since mid-2006, the State government and the JBIC have been holding discussions. Last week, concluding the debate in the Assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi informed the House that Mr. Stalin would visit Japan in the first week of February.

Talks at Tokyo

On Wednesday, Mr. Stalin, accompanied by senior officials from the State and the Centre, held negotiations with a team of officials of the Bank, including Tetsuo Shioguchi, Senior Executive Director. [Already, a high-level official team from the Union Government was in Tokyo in this regard.]

Mr. Stalin explained to Mr. Shioguchi the need for and salient features of the project, which envisages fluorosis mitigation. He sought financial and technical assistance from the JBIC.

The Bank’s senior official told the Minister that his organisation would give its commitment this month and a formal loan agreement would be signed between the JBIC and the Union Government next month, according to an official release.

A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board said 85 per cent of the project would be funded by the JBIC. The tenure of the loan will be 30 years, including a moratorium of 10 years.

The project, which will supply around 125 million litres a day (MLD) in the intermediate stage (2021) and 160 MLD in the final stage (2036), will benefit 30 lakh people initially and 40.4 lakh eventually. It will cover 3 municipalities, 17 town panchayats and 6,755 rural habitations. An important feature of the project is that water has to be pumped for 100 km at a height of 700 metres with intermediate boosters at five locations.

This is required to take the water to Hosur. Water will be drawn from the Cauvery at Hogenekkal and distributed after treatment.

Infrastructure project

Mr. Shioguchi also conveyed to Mr. Stalin that the JBIC would approve financial assistance to the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Project for implementation of the Tiruchi water supply augmentation project and underground sewerage schemes in 6 municipalities.

Metro rail

Mr. Stalin, who was on a visit to Japan to study the working of the Tokyo Metro Rail System, sought the Bank’s financial and technical support for the State Government‘s Rs.9,700-crore Chennai metro rail project.

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