Kondaveetivagu, a drain that originates from the Kondaveedu hill ranges near Perecherla in the district, is now part of the proposed capital region. The drain covers a distance of 29.4 km from Lam anicut in the village limits of Lam and Tadikonda, Neerukonda, Yerrabalem, Krishnaiahpalem and Undavalli before joining river Krishna near the upstream of Prakasam Barrage.
Though various proposals, ranging from modernising the drainage system to diverting flood waters into the left bank of the Krishna Western Main Canal below the railway bridge at Sitanagaram, were forwarded to successive governments, not much headway was made.
With the State government zeroing in on the river front mandals for building the capital region, fresh proposals for utilising flood waters by constructing a storage reservoir have been put forward by the Minor Irrigation Department.
“The drain is in spate whenever it rains in the catchment area, and flood waters enter small and medium drains upstream. We have sent proposals on the possibility of impounding water and diverting it to meet the requirements of the new capital region,” said A. Venkateswarlu, Senior Engineer, Minor Irrigation Department.
The maximum flood discharge of the drain is 56.25 C/s with a C value of 200.
Earlier, flood waters from the drain used to enter the river through an outfall sluice, but with the commissioning of the VTPS cooling channel and the need to maintain a pond level of + 17.39 M on the upstream of Prakasam Barrage to facilitate drawal of water to the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station, flood waters are not discharged into the river directly. As a result, cotton, chilli and other horticultural crops, spread across 13,500 acres, have been facing the threat of inundation.
Later, a regulator was constructed at Undavalli near the Krishna Western Main Canal with a design capacity of 8,640 C/s, , but it is now in a dilapidated condition.
Meanwhile, a technical monitoring committee has proposed diversion of flood water from the drain to the K.W Main Canal through the Undavalli regulator at a cost of Rs. 6.57 crore. The proposal has been submitted to Director of the Ganga Flood Control Commission of Water Resources to be forwarded to the Ministry of Water Resources.
