Vijayawada: The team of international experts studying the damage to the Polavaram irrigation project has presented their observations before the Polavaram Project Authority, the Central Water Commission and other agencies at Polavaram in Eluru district on Tuesday.
The team has been inspecting the project site since June 30 to identify the nature and assess the extent of damage to components like the diaphragm wall, cofferdams located both upstream and downstream and ECRF Gap-I and Gap-II etc.
They shared their observations with representatives from the stakeholder agencies on each damaged component, as to what best could be done to restore them.
The stakeholder agencies like PPA, CWC etc heard brief talks on the experts’ observations of the project components.
Sources say the experts examined the record of the foundation of D-wall to find out more details on the rock where the foundation was laid, its stability and the subsequent damage to the D-wall.
On the last day of the four-day inspection by the international experts on Wednesday, there will be interaction between the individual experts and the expert agencies/departments. Special focus would be on how to deal with the damaged components of the project, whether to restore or replace them, in order to make the Polavaram project sustainable.
Water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu visited the Polavaram project site and interacted with the experts and expert agencies. Later, the minister told the media that the state government aimed to complete the Polavaram project early and help AP free from drought.
The Godavari water could be diverted through the Polavaram project to help north Andhra and Rayalaseema regions with adequate supply of water for cultivation, he said
The minister slammed the previous government for allocating just Rs 30,000 crore for water resources in the budget against the Rs 72,000 crore allotted in 2014 by the TD government.
The minister made an important announcement -- of releasing Godavari water from the Pattiseema lift irrigation project at 7.27am on Wednesday.
Some 7,000 cusecs of water from Pattiseema, 875 cusecs from Tadipudi lift scheme, 3,500 cusecs from Purushothapatnam Stage-1, 1,000 cusecs from Purushothapatnam Stage-2 and 1,225 cusecs from Pushkara lift scheme would be released.
