Temporary gate to be erected at Pulichintala dam

VIJAYAWADA: A temporary gate will be erected at Pulichintala dam on Saturday. The water resources authorities have deployed a team of experts to install a temporary gate called ‘Stop Lock Gate’ in the place of the radial crest gate number 16, which was washed away due to a mechanical failure in the early hours on Friday.

The authorities are draining water from the reservoir throughout the day as the Pulichintala project is receiving inflow of 64,963 cusecs of water from upstream Nagarajunasagar project besides having inflows from other sources.

Water resources engineer-in-chief C. Narayana Reddy said, “We have taken up preliminary works and we will fix the temporary get on Saturday as we are expecting water level in the reservoir to dip by that time.”

The Pulichintala project was initiated during the previous Telugu Desam regime under engineering, procurement and construction mode in 2003. However, the Congress government led by the then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy laid foundation stone for the project in 2004 and it was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy in 2013.

The YSR Congress Party government is having the burden of clearing dues worth of Rs 199 crore along with interest as the previous regime failed to pay for execution of Pulichintala project.

On the other hand, Prakasam barrage is receiving inflow of 4.57 lakh cusecs of water from upstream Pulichintala project and nearly 4.44 lakh cusecs of water are being released into the sea by lifting all 70 gates to a height of 12.9 feet besides supplying 12,789 cusecs of water into canals for cultivation at 6.00 pm.

Krishna river conservator A. Raja Swaroop Kumar said, “We are expecting a maximum quantum of nearly 5.67 lakh cusecs of water from Pulichintala project to reach Prakasam barrage in the next few hours and we will be releasing nearly 130 tmcft of water into the sea from the barrage by Saturday this season from June 1.”