Yeleru water to Visakhapatnam again from tomorrow
GVMC spends Rs 5 crore on canal desiltation works.
Visakhapatnam: After a month-long hiatus, Vizag city will start getting water from Ye-leru from April 5 with the GVMC and the Visakhapatnam Industrial Water Supply Company (VIWSCO) having drawn curtains on the ongoing desiltation works at the Yeleru canal.
The GVMC had temporarily closed the canal which supplies a lion's share of water to Vizag city from March 1 for desilting purposes. After the works were completed on March 31 and the Yeleru reservoir reached its dead storage, the GVMC started pumping water from the Yeleru reservoir into the Yeleru canal. The accumulated silt in the Yeleru canal over the years had brou-ght its capacity down by 50 per cent, giving it 300 cusecs instead of its ori-ginal capacity of 700 cu-secs.
In view of the proposed Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation Scheme (PLIS) on the Godavari River, augmenting the capacity of the canal to receive more water from the proposed project was largely felt.
According to officials, the dredging works may have added about 10 per cent capacity to the canal.
Speaking to this newspaper, superintending engineer (water supply), GVMC, P. Ananda Rao, said they started pumping water from Yeleru reservoir into the canal on March 31 after the desiltation work was co-mpleted. “It may take an-other two to three days for water to reach Vizag city. Compared to last ye-ar, we are in a good position in terms of water levels in reservoirs. We hope a smooth summer ahead for Vizag,” said Mr Ananda Rao.
Meanwhile, the GVMC has been drawing additional water from Meg-hadrigedda reservoir to compensate the water supply from Yeleru can-al. The Meghadrigedda supplies about 10 MGD water to the city on any normal day. But about 30 MGD is being pumped from this reservoir for the last one month, starting from March 1.
Though the GVMC has planned to dredge the Yeleru canal many times in the past, it was never carried out due to various reasons. But this time, the GVMC officials went ahead with canal clearing works after finding themselves in a good position in terms of water levels in the reservoirs.