Visakhapatnam: The proposed Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation Scheme (PLIS) on the Godavari river, which the state government wants to complete by October, might prove to be an exercise in futility if the capacity of the Yeleru canal is not augmented.
The accumulated silt in the canal which is a major source of supply for the industries as well as households of Vizag city, had brought down its carrying capacity by over 50 per cent — down to 300 cusecs from its original capacity of 700 cusecs. Even if additional water is drawn from the river to the Yeleru canal through this PLIS project, the canal would not be able to receive more than its downsized capacity.
The Greater Visakhapa-tnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and the Visakhapatnam Industrial Water Supply Company (VIWSCO) plan to begin desilting the canal at a cost of about Rs 5 crore from March 1 after temporarily closing the canal and drawing water from other sources to Vizag city.
According to officials, however, it would add no more than 10 per cent capacity to the canal. The GVMC has been gearing up to enhance the existing storage capacity of some of the water bodies in Vizag district by 5 TMC to get its full appropriation of water from the PLIS. But majority of these water bodies would depend on water from the Yeleru canal.
The VIWSCO, a few years back, had proposed an association with the Dredging Corporation of India and submitted proposals to dredge the Yeleru canal to augment its capacity. But it was not implemented. Also, a proposal to lay new pipelines for Yeleru Left Main Canal over a stretch of 153 km to avoid non-revenue water failed to make a headway.
A GVMC official said, “Work on the Yeleru canal is expected to enhance its capacity by 5 to 10 per cent. Even with a higher cost of up to Rs 30 crore, the capacity will not cross 70 per cent of its original capacity. We are getting water from the Yeleru reservoir by gravity into the Yeleru canal. We don’t want to waste this opportunity. We will start the dredging works by March 1 when the water level in the reservoir goes down to 71.5 metres,” said the official.
