Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday laid the foundation for the diaphragm wall, a crucial part of the Polavaram major irrigation project.
He also inaugurated the work on spillway gates fabrication at the work-site.
Addressing the media after laying the foundation, Mr. Naidu said that the diaphragm wall would be the biggest in the world. It would have a length of 1,500 metres, a width of 120 metres, and a depth of 40-100 metres.
The Chief Minister said that 18,000 tonnes of steel would be used for making vents.
Construction of the diaphragm wall would be completed in two phases, he said.
“In the first phase, from this day to June, construction of 750 metres should be completed. In the second phase, from December 1 to June, construction of 800 metres should be completed. If we follow this schedule, by 2018 we will be able to provide Godavari waters through gravity and complete the project by 2019,” he said.
He said that the Union Government had provided ₹1,981 crore through Nabard as first instalment. “If it gives the next instalment, the state will be able to pay ₹27,000 crore towards the R&R package as per the Land Acquisition Act of 2013,” he added.
Mr. Naidu said that out of 1,064 lakh cubic metres of earth work, 592 lakh cubic metres of work had been completed till date.
He said there was no project in the country of this scale and magnitude, be it in terms of height, width, discharge, and irrigated area.
Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinarajappa, Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Endowments Minister P. Manikyala Rao, Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao, Polavaram SE Ramesh Babu, and MLAs Chintamaneni Prabhakar, Srinivas, and Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary were present.
