As the talk of early elections gathers mass with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself giving such indications, the pressure on work agencies executing the key component of Kaleshwaram irrigation project has increased to meet the early deadlines to take water at least to Mid Manair reservoir this monsoon season.
Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), the agency executing the component (Package 8) to carry the water from Yellampally barrage to SRSP Flood Flow Canal (FFC), is flexing its muscles to complete work on five out of the seven pumps by mid-September by deploying additional men and machinery.
Wet run
“We plan to keep the five pumps with 139 MW capacity each ready for wet run by that time,” B. Srinivas Reddy, a director of the company, said during a visit to the work site here on Monday.
The work agency has already completed dry run of one pump and another pump would be in that position by July-end.
The Package 8 draws water from Yellampally through Packages 6 and 7 to pump it into a link channel before carrying it to FFC for gravity flow to Mid Manair.
“Once the water reaches Mid Manair with 20 tmc ft storage capacity, it would be easy for the government to take it to over 10 lakh acres existing ayacut under Mid Manair, Lower Manair dams and minor irrigation tanks,” Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao said at Package 8 work site.
He stated that Annaram and Sundillla barrages would also be ready for storage to be able to provide water for pumping for onward transmission useful for SRSP rejuvenation and supplementation to Mid Manair.
Taking pride to be part of executing the pump house with highest capacity pumps of 139 mw each used for lifting water anywhere across the world, Mr. Srinivas Reddy of MEIL said it is an engineering marvel as it is coming up over 320 meters underground. He stated that they would be in a position to run two pumps by July-end, work could not be carried out on other pumps when the two are running.
For govt. to decide
“It's for the State Government to take the decision whether to run two pumps or to wait for completion of the work on another three pumps,” he opined.
Although the work contract was awarded to them way back in 2008 as part of Pranahitha-Chevella project, a major component of which has become Kaleshwaram after redesigning of the original project, the visible work could be executed only during the last 20 months or so, the MEIL executive said explaining the pace of work. The company is also executing the pump houses at Kasipet (for Annaram barrage) and at Golivada (for Sundillla) with 8 and 9 pumps, respectively. It has plans to operate at least three pumps each there this monsoon season.
On the agency’s track record for completing projects before deadline, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said this is their secret behind the growth from a ₹100 crore company 15 years ago to ₹20,000 crore infrastructure giant, which could be achieved with the cooperation of the governments concerned.
