Willingdon Reservoir Construction Railway
Willingdon Reservoir Construction Railway
The ‘Willingdon Reservoir’ was created by constructing a dam in the Periya Odai Stream, a tributary of the Vellar River in the Cuddalore District. The dam incorporated the ‘Tholudur Regulator’ to monitor and control the water available for reservoir storage, irrigation and discharge into Vellar River to prevent down-stream flooding.
The dam was built between 1913 and 1923 and the records show a 2ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG) railway was used during the construction of the dam and Regulator [1].
Modern records indicate that the lake created by the dam and regulator have become known as the ‘Wellington Lake’ replacing the name ‘Willingdon Reservoir’ [2].
The ‘Tholudar Regulator’ is still in use today and the operating rules and practices are clearly stated to control and share the inflow to the VellarRiver [3].
References
- ↑ “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compiled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. ISBN 978 1 901556 82-7. Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry TN20 page ....
- ↑ Wikipedia “Wellington Lake” ; Retrieved 31 May 2017
- ↑ Google Books “Watershed Planning and Employment Generation” By R. Mani , page66; Retrieved 31 May 2017