Rajahmundry: The proposed desiltation of the Godavari river bed to augment the water storage capacity at Sir Arthur Cotton barrage to use it for irrigation and drinking waterpurposes in Godavari delta seems to have been shelved by the state government for the time being, following the new sand policy where free sand is available to people and government agencies.
The Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu during his frequent visits to Rajahmundry to oversee the progress of works being taken up for conduct of Godavari Maha Pushkaralu in July, 2015 directed the irrigation authorities to rope in Dredging Corporation of India to take up desiltation of the river bed as it was found with huge mounds of sand at some places and more depth of river bed towards West Godavari bund side of the river.
The huge mounds of sand deposited during floods especially upstream the barrage affect the water bearing capacity of the river resulting in availability of inadequate water in the pond at the barrage to supply to eastern, western central delta areas through canals for cultivation of crops.
Even at present, as the water level in the river is very less, irrigation authorities are finding other sources of water including Seeleru to get nearly 7,000 cusecs of water to supply to delta areas for cultivation of crops.
The irrigation authorities maintain that as the government announced the new sand policy and ensures free supply of sand to general public and government agencies, the sand is being extracted from the river bed under the supervision of officials.
The government issued directions to collect charges for labour for extraction of sand and for transportation from sand reach to the end point where construction works are going on. Earlier, the government intended to make good money by selling away the extracted sand as part of desiltation of river bed.
According to an estimate, nearly 65 lakh metric tonnes of sand was supposed to be extracted from the river bed in three years period fetching good revenue to the state exchequer.
However, as the state government has adopted new sand policy to supply sand freely for some time on an experimental basis, there may not be any desiltation of the river bed in a big way as long as sand is supplied free of cost.
