With a successful drive against encroachments in Porur lake, government officials have claimed a rare success of demolising illegal structures from one of the largest water bodies near Chennai. And the Public Works Department too has planned massive improvement works here. According to officials, the water spread of the lake was originally 800 acres with a capacity to store 45.15 million cubic feet of water. The combined catchment area of the lake was 22.26 square km and water from the lake once irrigated 300 hectares of land.