Poondi Reservoir (Waterbodies of Chennai - 27)

Sathyamurti Sagar reservoir located in Poondi near Chennai city is an important dam/reservoir. It is a huge reservoir with an area of about 121 square miles. It is built across the river Koshathalaiyar. This is one of the reservoirs which supplies water to Chennai. The total capacity of the reservoir is 3,231 million cubic feet.  

It was constructed in 1944 at the cost of just Rs. 65 lakhs. The ancient Shiva temple named Oondreeswarar temple was shifted from its original location to give way to this reservoir. Shri. K. Kamaraj was instrumental to rename the Poondi reservoir as Sathyamurti Sagar.

The reservoir and the adjoining park make an interesting picnic spot. 

Happy travelling.

Note: As per a report, there were about 650+ waterbodies in Chennai region till 1980s. Today, only a fraction of them exist. And, most of those surviving waterbodies hardly have water and even some of them that  have water had been shrunk badly. In Chennai, there are tank roads without tanks nearby and lake view roads without any lake in the vicinity. There is a high possibility that even the few waterbodies that we have today might vanish in the near future. I thought of visiting the currently surviving waterbodies of Chennai and its suburbs and write about them in my blog as a series.

View Larger Map