VIJAYAWADA: The hydraulic gates of Polavaram Irrigation Project spillway, the world's largest spillway, have been successfully operated in the first monsoon after they were installed.
The 48 massive hydraulic gates were put to full potential use for the first time with the recent flash floods, demanding the lifting of all the gates for releasing 15 lakh cusecs of water through the spill channel into the river Godavari.
According to officials, the maintenance of gates of under-construction spillways may have initial operational difficulties. At the Polavaram project, the construction works are still underway.
The major works on the spillway are completed, and the world's largest hydraulic gates have been successfully installed. As the need for lifting all the 48 gates arose, the efficiency of the construction has been proved, they claimed.
"The radial gates played a crucial role in releasing floodwater into the Godavari through the approach channel, spillway, spill channel and pilot channel, spread across 6 kilometres," the officials said.
River Godavari is receiving unprecedented floodwater due to heavy downpour in the upstream areas and irrigation officials said this is the first time in 100 years that Godavari is witnessing this kind of terrifying flood right at the beginning of the monsoon season.
They said Polavaram project is ready to withstand heavy floods and all preparations have been made to release floodwater from the spillway into the river. During the last floods also, 42 of the 48 radial gates were lifted.
By then, the erection of the gates and installation of 84 hydraulic cylinders to lift the gates were successfully done. Simultaneously 24 power pack sets were also installed on the spillway for operating the radial gates.
In the Polavaram project, along with radial gates, 10 river sluice gates were also installed at the dead storage level. Alongside these, 20 hydraulic cylinders, 2 per each gate, and 10 power-pack sets for operating them have also been installed.
Floodwater at the spillway is first released through river sluice gates.When the reservoir reaches dead storage level, water is released downstream through these gates to provide drinking and irrigation water to the Godavari delta.