CHENNAI: The Federation of Varadarajapuram Welfare Associations (FEDOVWA) welcomed the announcements made in the state budget to take up restoration and beautification of the Adyar River and sought setting up sewage treatment plants on both sides of the Adyar River at Varadarajapuram panchayat near Mudichur.

FEDOVWA president V Rajasekaran said that as part of the Adyar River restoration project, the government has planned to lay a 70-km-long sewer pipeline along the banks of the river as a channel for sewage disposal, establishment of 14 STPS with a treatment capacity of 110 million litres a day would be constructed and increasing green spaces by developing four parks along the riverbanks.

"FEDOVWA has been campaigning for the last years for the protection of the Adyar, prevention of mixing of sewage and setting up of sewage treatment plant to treat sewage from the residential areas. We have given petitions in this regard to the Water Resources Department, the Kancheepuram district administration and the state government. A seminar was also conducted on behalf of the FEDOVWA urging the protection of the Adyar. We express our gratitude to the chief minister for the announcement made in the budget," he said.

The federation also demanded the government set up one of the four parks proposed along the Adyar River at Varadarajapuram.

"We also request the government to take up flood prevention works to protect the locality from natural calamities in the future," he demanded.