Kakinada: The central government has given its clearance for engineers to take up the works on the damaged part of Polavaram Project.
Various technical teams like the dam design review panel, the central soil and material research institute, the Polavaram project authority and others visited the project site. These teams are assessing the possibility of reconstruction of the diaphragm wall etc.
The teams visited the upper and lower cofferdam works. According to sources, a team of the NHPC (National Hydro Power Corporation) tested the wall strengthening aspects for 20 days from January 26 and submitted a report to the central government, the Polavaram Project Authority and the state government, and suggested that steps be taken to reconstruct and strengthen the project.
On Sunday, a review meeting was held at Rajamahendravaram. There, the authorized technical teams have given the engineers the clearance to fill up the two huge holes formed at the dam and re-construct those parts. The study teams have identified damage to the extent of 485 metres of the diaphragm wall out of its 1,396 metres. They noticed that there were many gaps in the diaphragm wall.
The central government has also given its permission to reconstruct the diaphragm wall where necessary. This has come as a big relief to the Polavaram project engineers. The project works were at a standstill for the past few months.
According to an engineer, the project works can now be restarted. The technical teams have advised the Polavaram engineers to do the work speedily and complete it before the rainy season.
The project and technical teams officials like Pandey, Bhargava, Gopalakrishna, AK Sarma, water resources minister Ambati Rambabu and others were present in the review meeting.
Rambabu visited Polavaram project site on Sunday and said that the diaphragm wall was badly damaged to the extent of 485 metres. “Huge holes were formed due to the floods last year and the D wall has been damaged. Without rectifying it, the project works would not have gone ahead.” He said that nearly 46 lakh cubic meters of sand would be required to fill up the holes and Rs 2,000 crore would be needed to reconstruct the diaphragm wall.
The minister repeated the charge that the previous Telugu Desam government and then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu should shoulder the blame for the damage to the diaphragm wall. The works would be expedited in the next four months, he said.
