The standoff between the power utilities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the division of employees has spilled over to the Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond project located at Satrasala in Guntur district. With the Telangana Government making a move to post Telangana-native employees to the project, Andhra Pradesh hastened to beef up security at the installation, which is presently under its administrative control.
A memo was issued on June 6 by the Telangana Energy Secretary, Mr. Aravind Kumar to the Chairman and Managing Director of TSGenco, Mr. Ajay Jain to allot employees who are native to Telangana to the 50 MW power wouse of the tail pond. As a response, Andhra Pradesh moved to assert its claim over the facility, and directed the Guntur police to step up security at the site. However, the Superintendent of Police (Guntur Rural), M. Narayan Naik said on Thursday, “The situation is quite normal but we have stationed a battalion of Special Protection Force (SPF) personnel only as a precautionary measure.’’
Andhra Pradesh officials asserted that the power house was assigned to the residuary state after bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The Superintendent Engineer of the Nagarjuna Sagar Tail Pond Project, Mr. P.D.V.L. Kumar told The Hindu that administrative control of the tail pond has always rested with APGenco, and that works relating to completion of the tail pond with a water-holding capacity of 7 tmc ft and power generation capacity of 50 MW have been nearly completed. Power generation would begin next month.
“The A.P. Reorganization Act allotted the power house to AP as it is located on the right bank, while Telangana retained the Nagarjunasagar dam, which is located on the left bank. The AP Government has been bearing the cost of the project. We have 43 personnel working here in various capacities,’’ Mr. Kumar said. The tail pond is a sub-project of the Nagarjunasagar Hydro Electric Power Project.
It was commissioned in 1982 with an installed capacity of 800 MW. The project has seven turbines with reversible pumping technology that allows pumping the water back into the project after power generation to maintain the water levels. But the technology has been ineffective as there was no tail pond. In 2006, the tail pond project was taken up at an estimated cost of Rs.700 crore.
