Only 19 out of 24 radial gates have been erected at the K.L. Rao Sagar Pulichintala Project, according to the status report given by the project Superintending Engineer. Another five gates are still to be erected. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy will dedicate the project to the nation on Saturday.
According to the status report dated November 14, equipment for the hoisting of only 18 radial gates had been fixed till now. The equipment had to still be fixed for one radial gate that has been fixed and five more that have not yet been erected.
The status report said the 99 per cent of the cement concrete work, that is 6.3 lakh cubic metres, had been completed. Similarly, 98.59 per cent of work on the earthen dam, that is 2.05 lakh cubic metres, had been completed and 97.41 per cent of excavation had been completed. The fabrication and erection of the river sluice gates have been completed.
While the gross storage capacity of the reservoir according to the design was 45.77 tmcft, the live storage capacity was 36.23 tmcft. The attached power house would have the capacity to generate 120 MW (four generators with a 30 MW capacity) on completion.
When the project was sanctioned in 2005, the State government granted administrative approval for Rs 681.604 crore. In the second revision in 2009, the cost of the project escalated to Rs 1,281 crore and in the cost of the project finally went up to Rs.1,831 crore in the last and third revision. Extension of time was granted to the contractor eight times.