The pump house of the two-decade-old lift irrigation project across the Godavari river at Suraveedu village in Venkatapuram mandal collapsed on Thursday.
According to sources, the lift irrigation scheme, which was in a dilapidated condition for the past few years, suddenly collapsed shattering the hopes of the local farmers and incurring an estimated loss of Rs. 40 lakhs.
One of the pump sets was reportedly damaged and fell into the river after the structure came crashing down.
The project was constructed during the TDP regime over two decades ago with an irrigation potential of 600 acres mainly to benefit the tribal farmers of Suraveedu and its surrounding villages.
After initial hiccups, the project took off and served the needs of the local farmers for a few years before developing some technical snag later in the 90s, sources said. The project was not fully utilised for several years due to ‘apathy' of the successive governments.
Though some efforts were made to restore the project about six years ago, they were not materialised due to fund crunch and other factors.
Village sarpanch Samakka and MPTC Kummari Srinu besides A P State Irrigation Development Corporation Divisional Engineer Srinivas and others inspected the collapsed structure.
Officials blamed
Distressed over the collapse of the project, the villagers, particularly farmers, blamed the officials concerned for the incident. “Notwithstanding our repeated pleas to strengthen the project, the officials failed to act in time,” deplored Pradeep, a young farmer.
When contacted, Mr. Srinivas said that the pump house of the project got submerged in the Godavari during the floods last year. The 20- year-old pump set collapsed due to weakened structure, he pointed out and added that proposals for reconstruction of the structure would be sent to the government.
