Closure of Yeleru canal for two months for maintenance and linking Pushkara canal of the Godavari to Tallapalem canal are among the measures that can be taken up for augmenting water supply to Visakhapatnam.
Describing the proposal for laying a pipeline from Yeleru to the city as a big waste and would be a burden as water charges would be increased retired Chief Engineer of Irrigation S. Satyanarayana and CPI-M district secretary Ch. Narsinga Rao suggested that the maintenance work be handed over to the Irrigation Department.
They told reporters here on Friday that the water drawn from Yeleru canal when it was under the Irrigation Department up to 2003 was about 80 mgd while at present it was a mere 55 mgd.
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Mr. Satyanarayana said the contractors maintaining the canal now neither had the expertise nor the know-how. The only way to improve the supply was to close the canal for two months and taking up repairs under the Irrigation Department, he said.
‘Polavaram only way out’
The city needed about 400 mgd of water in future for its industrial and domestic needs as projected against its present 100 mgd supply and Polavaram project the left canal of which would bring water to the city was the only solution, he said. Since the design of the Polavaram canal had not been finalised, it might take another 10 years for its completion, the only solution would be linking the Pushkara canal, parallel to the Polavaram canal, completed up to Tuni now could be linked to Tallapalem canal, 60 km away, Mr. Satyanarayana said.
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