Red Hills Lake is located in Ponneri Taluk of Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu. It is also known as "Puzhal Lake" or "Puzhal Aeri". There are three rain-fed reservoirs from where water is being drawn to be supplied in the city of Chennai. The Red Hills Lake is one of them and the other is Chembarambakkam Lake and Porur Lake. The full capacity of the lake is 3,300 million cubic feet (mcft). The lake had been upgraded in June 2012. A huge amount had been spent by the WRD for repairing and strengthening the reservoir. For taking up a project the water level of the reservoir has been brought down to 10.46 ft. The water body receives 300 cubic feet per second from Poondi canal for supplying to the city.
History of Red Hills Lake
According to history, Red Hills Lake was built in 1876. Earlier it was a small tank with a capacity of 500 million cubic feet which was used as an irrigation lake. It also had two masonry weirs that had been constructed with available materials like laterite stones. They functioned as surplus weirs to release excess water from the water body. They had been later replaced by two shutters and presently these masonry weirs help in retaining water. During the British Rule, it was utilized as a Military Camp. This lake was used as an airport for water plans for to make a landing and takeoff.
In 1997, the storage capacity of the reservoir was increased to 3,300 mcft. Its depth had also been increased to 21.20 ft. It was done to meet the drinking water needs of Chennai and also for storing Krishna water received from Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Besides these there are two masonry weirs in the reservoir. One weir is 178 m long and the other is 220 m long and 15 ft deep. However, with time the weirs have turned porous.
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