As part of the State government’s plan to commission pump houses in package 6 and 8 of the Kaleshwaram project by December-end, the dry run of the third motor pump in package 8 was taken up successfully on Saturday night at Laxmipur in Ramadugu mandal of Karimnagar district.
According to sources, the dry run of the third pump – one of the five pumps on one side of the underground pump house – was taken up with the motor being made to run over 219 RPM (revolutions per minute) by the engineers of Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) along with those from BHEL, Siemens India and others. Advisor to State Government on Lift Irrigation Projects K. Penta Reddy, Chief Engineer N. Venkateshwarlu and other engineers of the Irrigation Department were present during the dry run exercise.
Functioning of at least five pumps is required to make the pump house operational as they are located in a row on one side, the sources said, adding that the dry run of two other pumps was already conducted in July and August. “We are aware of the fact that we are running behind the initial schedule of completing the work on five pumps by July-end, but we can’t take chances in the quality of work by hurrying through work in the underground pump house,” a senior engineer said.
The pump houses in package 6 and 8 hold key for carrying water from Yellapally reservoir to Flood Flow Canal for its onward journey as part of Kaleshwaram project, rejuvenation of Sriramsagar project and linking of FFC with Kakatiya Canal of Sriramsagar. The two pump houses would have seven pumps each for lifting two tmc ft water a day and three spare pumps each. Dry run of two more pumps makes the pump house ready for wet run and launch.
In the package 6 pump house, dry run of only one pump has been conducted in the last week of August and the trial speed run of another pump is expected to be taken up later this month. Sounding confident of taking up wet run of the two pump houses during the year-end or early in January, the senior engineer said: “In spite of running behind the original schedule, we are confident of readying the two pump houses by then”.
