GUNTUR: The Kondaveeti Vagu, called ‘Stream of Sorrow’, is going to turn into a waterway for Amaravati and save the capital region from inundation through a water-lift pumping scheme.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is going to lay the foundation stone for a water-lifting pumping house at Undavalli Chepala Revu on Wednesday. As there is no way to release floodwaters, the government had decided to pump water into the Krishna River through 16 motors and each motor would pump 350 cusecs of water into the river.
The State government has already sanctioned Rs 237 crore for the pumping house at Undavalli village of Tadepalli mandal.
The first priority is to dig the silt from the Kondaveeti Vagu within 15 days, and it will take another 15 days to dry, then only the works would be taken up. A new canal would be constructed to divert the flood water of the stream into Krishna River from Lam Farm to Vykunthapuram.
Water supply to the stream with gravity during dry time proposed to ensure water supply throughout the year in the Kondaveeti Vagu.
Kondaveeti Vagu originates from Kondaveedu hill ranges near Perecherla village of Medikonduru mandal in Guntur district. But the drain starts from Lam Village which runs for a length of 29.5 km.
The Vagu causes submersion of about 13,500 acres of land during floods and out of this 10,600 acres of land is within the core capital region. The officials drafted a plan to mitigate floodwater of about 5,000 cusecs from Kondavedu Vagu.
As much as 15,000 cusecs of water would flow in the Kondaveeti Vagu during floods and heavy rains. The stream had been narrowed in majority areas, creating obstruction for the free flow of water.
Kondaveeti Vagu stops the transportation between Guntur-old Amaravati and Vijayawada-Tullur-old Amaravati due to overflowing of stream in various areas.
A new canal would be constructed from Lam Farm to Vykunthapuram on the banks of Krishna River to divert the floodwater into the river. The stream would be widened by increasing the water flowing capacity to 22,650 cusecs from present 15,000 cusecs. The bed level of the stream would be increased to 120 meters from present 30 meters.
As much as 5,600 cusecs of floodwater would go into Krishna River, 5,000 cusecs would be released into Buckingham Canal and another 5,000 cusecs would be pumped into Krishna River at Undavalli through lift motors near Prakasam Barrage.
A new barrage was proposed on the Krishna River at Vykunthapuram with 5-7 tmc ft of water storage capacity. During dry time, water from new Barrage would be released into the stream for the transportation of ships linking to Buckingham Canal National Waterway-4.