Rajahmundry: Designs for the various components of the Polavaram irrigation project will be quickly finalised at a review committee meeting, headed by its chairman A.B. Pandya on September 9 and 10.
Designs for the earth-cum-rock-fill dam, diaphragm wall, spillway, spill channel and others will be finalised at the meeting at the office of Polavaram Project Authority in Hyderabad.
The meeting will be attended by members of the design review committee, experts from the Central Water Commission, senior officials from the AP water resources department and experts from other agencies.
Unlike the earlier time-consuming practice that involved a lot of correspondence between the panel and officials on a series of proposed designs, the Centre has taken the initiative to call the meeting to facilitate deliberations among the experts and take a final decision on the designs.
Earlier, a similar meeting was held in June in the office of Central Water Commission in New Delhi. The state water resources authorities are preparing designs of the project for submission before the panel. They said the panel’s decision would be final and the designs approved by it would be executed.
On the other hand, water resources officials are struggling to take up excavation of earth and rocks for execution of spill channel at the project site at Polavaram in West Godavari, as the area has a vast reservoir of stagnant water.
As many as 45 pumps are running round the clock to clear the stagnant water from the area. The incessant rainfall in the last few days in the local area and Godavari river receiving good inflow of water from various sources resulted in water stagnation.
Polavaram project superintending engineer V.S. Ramesh Babu said, “We are expecting several designs of various components of the Polavaram project to be finalised at DRC meeting. We have got all requisite clearances to go ahead with the execution of the project. Our government is making all efforts to get relaxation on Stop Work Order on the project from MoEF on a permanent basis instead of the present annual relaxation.”
