KADAPA: Though over 50 days have passed since the breach in Annamayya Project in Kadapa district, officials are yet to come to a decision on whether to build the earthen bund at the same spot or at an alternate location thereby expanding the scope of the reservoir area.
On November 19, heavy rains upstream of the Cheyyeru river caused flash floods and in a short span of time large volumes of water gushed out of the project at Badanagadda in Rajampet mandal breaching the earthen bund. The resulting deluge caused large-scale loss of life and property.
The project, which has a storage capacity of 2.239 TMC and discharge capacity of 2.48 lakh cusecs, received inflows of 3.2 lakh cusecs in just a few hours. The floodwater flowing over one metre above the bund caused a breach as it was not able to sustain the pressure.
After the incident, the project was devoid of water. However, the experts who visited and inspected the structure are of two minds: whether to construct the bund at the same location or at another place expanding the storage capacity of the project.
“At present, the structural integrity of the project, foundation of the earthen bund and possible advantages if the bund is constructed at an alternate place are being studied. There are a couple of proposals before the senior officials which are being studied. In all probability, a decision will be taken by the end of January,” Annamayya project executive engineer N Ravi Kiran said.
Meanwhile, eight of the 37 flood victims are still to be traced. In the days following the deluge, only 29 out of the 37 missing could be traced. Not waiting for the bodies of the still missing to be recovered, the government, based on an FIR, handed over an ex-gratia of `5 lakh to the families of each victim.