Chennai: Kosasthalaiyar river, one of the city’s most polluted waterways affected by effluent discharge, will soon get a fresh lease of life. Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust (CRRT) has proposed a restoration plan involving water resources department (WRD), Metrowater, and Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) to restore 70 km of the 136-km-long river originating at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. The river largely remains pollution-free until Red Hills, and hence, most of the restoration will be done in localities beneath Red Hills until the estuary.Minutes of a meeting chaired by CRRT member secretary, accessed by TOI, said WRD proposed an 81 lakh project to set up boundary stores. A consultant, Voyants, appointed to study the river, spotted solid waste dumping in 13 locations, and GCC has been tasked with removing this. Govt will set up a centralised solid waste processing facility at Kondakarai to ensure waste is processed and segregated in panchayats around North Chennai.The consultant identified five major sewage outfalls releasing 20 KLD of raw sewage each day. Metrowater will fix the outfalls at a cost of 1.75 crore and will also carry out a comprehensive underground sewerage supply scheme in Idayanchavadi, Sadayankuppam, and Kadapakkam before Sept 2026. The consultant will also study the number of encroachments and send a proposal to TN urban habitat development board to relocate residents. In North Chennai alone, the river has around 1,000 encroachments along Manali’s Sadayankuppam area, which caused immense flooding in 2023 for three weeks. These encroachments reduced the river’s carrying capacity from 1.1 lakh cusecs to just 60,000 cusecs. WRD executive engineer Selvakumar said the work will begin in a month. “Restoration will improve after a budget is allotted for each component for each department,” he said.Officials said the river breached last year when water at 40,000 cusecs was released from Poondi, submerging roads leading to Ennore.