Study on to link Kousika with AAGRS

Last December, the administration sent a Rs 87-crore proposal to the state to restore the Kousika that flows through the district and joins Noyyal river in neighbouring Tirupur district. 

“Reviving the river through a rejuvenation project is important. But linking it with AAGRS is the ultimate aim as it will benefit farmers and villagers in several wayside hamlets where the groundwater level is below 1,700 feet. Both these projects will go handin-hand,” says Athikadavu Kousika Nadhi Development Association secretary PK Selvaraj. 

The Kousika that flows for 49.8 km from Kurudimalai in Coimbatore to Noyyal River in Tirupur district is not a perennial river. As part of the rejuvenation project 30 check dams will be constructed across the course. The 30 structures will also include the existing ones which will undergo repair and maintenance. The new check dams have been planned to store rain water and recharge the underground water table. 

“During a meeting with the officials, they said that the excess water from AAGRS can be linked to Kousika at six places from Kovilpalayam,” Selvaraj said and added that the gradient also favoured such linkings. “On the outskirts of Coimbatore, the distance between the Kousika and AAGRS is close to 6 km. It reduces to one km at Kovilpalalyam,” he explained.

During the 2016 Assembly Election, the association strongly pressed for linking the Kousika with the AAGRS. 

Hope of the project seeing light has come with the meeting that was organised on the direction of Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani. Earlier this week, Coimbatore Collector TN Hariharan chaired a meeting over this project with stake holders of the river and officials from the Public Works and other departments.

A senior PWD official said “from Kovilpalayam there are a few tanks and ponds on the way between the river and AAGRS. Linking them will not be an expensive affair. We will soon study the possibility of linking five or six check dams across the Kousika.” The report would be submitted to the state, he added.