Officials take up trail run of Pattiseema project pumps

The project located at Pattiseema village of Polavaram mandal in Eluru district has 24 pumps with each pump having the capacity to lift 350 cusecs of water from Godavari river and dump into the Polavaram Right Main Canal so that the water flows through the Budameru canal and joins Krishna river at Pavitra Sangamam.

Whenever there is a need for water to the farmers for cultivation of crops in Krishna delta spread over in about 13 lakh acres, the water resources authorities will lift the Godavari water when the water level touches more than 14 metres at the Pattiseema project. It takes nearly four days for Godavari river water to reach Krishna delta covering a distance of over 185 km.

In anticipation of the need for Godavari water to the farmers in Krishna delta who took up late sowings in the kharif season, the water resources authorities are getting ready to start pumping water in the last week of November and it is expected to continue up to the first week of December based on the need and also the water level in Krishna river.

Earlier, the water resources authorities had pumped Godavari water to Krishna delta from July to September and it is estimated that nearly 58 tmc ft of water had been lifted and pumped to Krishna delta.

With no standby pumps available at the Pattiseema project, the authorities are carrying out a trial run to ensure that all the pumps and motors to be in a functioning condition so that they can lift and pump Godavari water to Krishna delta as per the requirement. Usually, the authorities take up operation and maintenance works of the Pattiseema project from December to next July.

Pattiseema project divisional executive engineer Peddi Raju said, “We are carrying out a trial run on the pumps and motors to ensure that they should be under working condition to be used to lift Godavari water to Krishna delta as per the requirement of mainly the farmers for cultivation of crops.”