Rs 8,000 crore project mooted to enable the barrage withstand pressure from 15 lakh cusecs of flood water
Vijayawada: The Prakasam Barrage across the Krishna river is likely to get a major facelift through a proposed Rs 8,000 crore government initiative to enable it to withstand heavy floods.
The water resources department has mooted the plan that promises a discharge of 15 lakh cusecs of water downstream into the sea.
Though there is a proposal to strengthen the barrage to cater to the irrigation and drinking water requirements, the recent heavy floods to the Krishna river resulted in the highest ever discharge of 11.4 lakh cusecs from the barrage. This underscored the need for strengthening the barrage and the flood banks on either side of the river to avoid any inundation of low lying areas and resultant damage to crops and disruption of people’s lives.
Accordingly, the water resources authorities proposed to strengthen the barrage by raising the height of all the 70 gates from the present level by two to three feet in the available space. This, they claim, would enable a raise in the storage capacity of the reservoir at the barrage.
In addition to this, these authorities are also proposing a rise in the height of the flood banks of the Krishna river on either side to a length of nearly 190km, at which place the river water empties into the sea.
In case the flood water discharge reaches 15 lakh cusecs at the barrage, the rise in the height of the floods banks from the present level will help avoid breaches to the flood banks at weak places and a situation of the spill over of floodwater affecting crops and habitations, officials said.
“However, as the width of the flood banks has to be expanded in order to raise their height, a need for land acquisition would arise, which will cause displacement of the people living in the vicinity of the present flood banks and loss of crops. For these, the state government will have to pay compensation as per the existing norms,” they said.
Krishna river conservator Ravi Kiran said, “We are preparing the Detailed Project Report to strengthen the Prakasam Barrage and make them withstand even the heavy floods at discharge of 15 lakh cusecs, so that there will not be any negative impact on the people and crops.”
Meanwhile, the state government is developing the existing narrow stretch of Karakatta Road (Krishna river bund road) leading to capital Amaravti from Vijayawada into a four-lane road to a length of nearly 23km. A retaining wall will be constructed on either side of the road so that it will help VVIPs, top officials, judges and the general public to travel to Amaravati, the high court and beyond with ease.
