Early south-west monsoon precipitation may have brought cheer to the farming community across Telangana helping them take up kharif cultivation operations, but they have certainly turned the heat on work agencies and engineers of Kaleshwaram irrigation project, particularly those engaged in executing work of Packages 6 to 8, as the rains threaten to affect the momentum of work.
The irrigation engineers supervising the work are keeping their fingers crossed on meeting the deadline, initially set as June-end, for getting at least three out of seven pumps each in the two pump houses in Package 6 and 8 ready to lift water for supplementing it to Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) command area.
Work in the three packages have been progressing swiftly hitherto but the early monsoon rains are likely to slow down the pace of work on the two underground pumping stations and the related work above the ground.
When contacted, a senior engineer involved in supervising the three packages refused to divulge the details about work that were getting delayed stating that they were “running against time to complete work needed to supplement water to SRSP”.
Admitting that rains were likely to slow down the work to some extent, the engineer said they would be in a position to operate at least a couple of pumps to lift water from Yellampally in July-August.
Reach safe stage
“We had plans to bring into use at least four pumps each in the two pumping stations by June-end initially but the delay in arrival of equipment has delayed the work. The Minister has asked the work agencies to increase the number of workers to and machinery such as cranes to speed up work even on the three barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla so that they reach a safe stage,” the engineer explained.
Indicating that it could take some more time for completion of components needed to lift water from Yellampally with the help of Packages 6 to 8, Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao asked the engineers during a visit to the project work on Tuesday to get at least two pumps ready by July-end.
According to irrigation officials, each pump would lift about 3,000 cusecs of water taking the quantity to about 0.27 tmc ft per day.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Corporation of Telangana Ltd (Transco) has also stepped up work on establishing the sub-stations in Packages 6 and 8 to supply power for pumping stations there.
Chairman and Managing Director of Transco D. Prabhakar Rao stated that they were planning to complete work on the two sub-stations including the gas-insulated one in Package 6 by June-end.
