Transstroy deploys heavy machinery at Polavaram

The dreams of the farmers in the region are finally coming true as the headworks of Indira Sagar Project commenced atop Anguluru Hills in Devipatnam mandal of East Godavari district on Friday. The officials of Transstroy (India) Limited-JSC Engineering Centre UES (Russia) consortium and the Indira Sagar organised a simple ceremony wherein they engaged the farming community to perform Bhoomi Puja for Polavaram project.

On Saturday, the Transstory officials were seen deploying heavy machinery and equipment at the site to commence the project works. This time, they preferred not to come on the scene and managed things from behind the curtains on directions of their top brass. The government and Transstroy officials seem to have beaten their brains out to steer clear of any unwanted attention by inviting VIPs and hence got farmers for the ground breaking ceremony. According to the officials, the headworks will be executed on a war-footing. This time, the tenders have been finalised as per rules and there is no scope for any criticism. Moreover, the headworks will be completed as per schedule, they added.

Former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Redddy had given a life to the pending project in 2004 by finalising tenders for the right and left canals with an aim to complete the works before the completion of Indira Sagar project. The government sanctioned Rs 2,673 crore for constructing the two canals by 2006, the estimated cost of which, however, escalated to Rs 3,450 crore due to inordinate delay.

The estimated cost of the spillway and rockfill dam also rose to Rs 7,332 crore as against `3,896 crore. The storage capacity of Indira Sagar project is 194.6 TMC and the full water level is 150 feet. The headworks is the main part of the dam, having earth-cum-rockfill dam, spillway and power house. The length of the earth-cum-rockfill dam is 2,454 metres and 48 metres in height. The length of the spillway is 1,128 metres, with 48 radial crest gates. The proposed power house has 12 units with a generation capacity of 960 mega watt.

The length of the right main canal is 174 km from Polavaram to Velagaleru village in Krishna district. As many as 80 TMC of water will be pumped into the Krishna River at Prakasam Barrage. The canal benefits as many as 17 mandals in West Godavari and six in Krishna district, while 3.21 lakh acres of ayacut is stabilised and 989.54 TMC of water is used.

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