WRD proposes construction of Kapilatheertham reservoir in Tirupati

Tirupati: An old proposal came to the fore with slight modification for solving the drinking water needs of the people of pilgrim city. Officials of Telugu Ganga Project (Tirupati Circle) of Water Resource Department (WRD) have made this proposal freshly with some changes to get the clearance from Forest department.

According to WRD officials, already there was an old proposal for constructing Kapilatheertham dam which was made by the then Chief Minister N T Rama Rao in 1983 .

Later the proposal was ignored till date. Now TGP Chief Engineer R Muralinath Reddy brought this proposal with new changes for forest clearance. As per the latest plan, a dam will be constructed across the Kapilatheertham waterfall stream on the top of Seshachalam hills and above Kpilatheertham temple in Tirupati.

Plan was designed to construct the reservoir with a storage capacity of 50 tmc ft of water. As per the latest rules, already 8 times of forest area was developed by the TTD authorities in Seshachalam forest. In this backdrop getting forest clearance for construction of Kapilatheertham dam will not be a problem.

Officials are planning to build a dam and two additional reservoirs, one at Malvadi Gundam and another at DFO wild life nursery near Kapilatheertham temple. Kapilatheertham waterfall is a big natural water source to Tirupati city. It will have rain water flow for more than three months in a year.

"With the aim of two main objects, we proposed the Kapilatheertham dam construction again, one is to provide drinking water to the temple city residents and another plan is to provide continuous water flow throughout the year to the Kapilatheertham waterfall. The project can be possible with the financial aid of TTD only,'' said senior officials of TGP Tirupati circle.