Work on the construction of a canal linking three rivers to provide water to the parched regions of two districts has run aground for lack of funds. The third and the fourth phase of work on the 73-km-long flood and stormwater channel, being dug to connect Tamirabharani – Karumaeniyar and Nambiyar rivers to take the perennial river’s surplus water to the dry regions of Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts, has come to a grinding halt due to non-availability of funds. The project, which was started in January 2011 on an outlay of Rs. 369 crore, is likely to be completed only in 2016 and the project cost is expected to cross Rs. 600 crore. Before flowing into the Gulf of Mannar near Punnaikaayal in Tuticorin district, the Tamirabharani and its 12 tributaries, downstream along the river’s 120- km route from the Western Ghats, irrigate crops, mainly paddy, on nearly 77,500 hectares in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts every year, particularly during the ‘pisanam’ paddy season. Besides nine reservoirs built across this river, eight major channels and 1,300 system tanks convey its water to the fields. Though three major reservoirs - Papanasam, Servalar and Manimuthar dams – have been constructed to conserve water, no credible and permanent arrangement is in place to store and utilise the floodwater for irrigation. Even as vast swathes of parched land in the Radhapuram and Nanguneri taluks of Tirunelveli district and the Sattankulam taluk of Tuticorin district and lakhs of people are craving for water, 13,758 million cubic feet water of the Tamirabharani goes waste during the rainy season, which is sufficient for irrigating 5,059 hectares (12,500 acre) of arid land. Hence, it was proposed to excavate the stormwater channel for 73 km from Vellankuzhi near Cheranmahadevi to M.L. Theri near Sattankulam in Tuticorin district at a cost of Rs. 369 crore under the Central Government’s Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme. The duration of the project would be three years, it was announced when work commenced on January 10, 2011. Officials were instructed to ensure no work was left over from the upper reach when work in the lower reach was taken up for execution. Of the four stages of work to be taken up for digging the channel, 99 per cent of the first stage work has been completed on an outlay of Rs. 106 crore while litigation pertaining to land acquisition has hampered the second stage. Therefore, only 89 per cent of the work has been finished in the second stage at a cost of Rs. 107 crore. After commencing at Vellankuzhi, excavation has been completed up to Moolaikkaraipatti, about 20 km from Palayamkottai, though land acquisition problems have affected the scheme in a few places in the second stage. "As long as the State government had a good relationship with the Centre, funds under the Central government’s Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme were made available on time and the work proceeded. Now, release of funds from the Union government is getting delayed. In other words, no fund has been released for commencing the third and fourth stage works and so we’ve stopped the work as of now," a senior official in the Public Works Department said. The delay is likely to have an adverse impact on the completion of the project within the stipulated period of three years. "The project may consume another three years and the project cost may cross Rs. 600 crore owing to inflation and other factors," said the PWD official.