Officials of the Irrigation Department officials have prepared a plan to construct three check dams downstream of the Prakasam Barrage, and the plan is likely to be discussed by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday.
Highly placed sources associated with the exercise told The Hindu : “There has been a proposal for construction of two check dams downstream of the Prakasam Barrage. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed us to come up with the plan for three check dams, for which Mr. Jagan is likely to give his nod during the talks on Monday.”
Location
Of the three locations being selected for the check dams, technical and feasibility studies have been completed at two strategic locations — between Oleru-Pallepalem (Guntur district) and Bobbarlanka (Krishna), and another between Anantaram (Guntur) and Diviseema (Krishna).
Irrigation Department Executive Engineer (River Conservation) Swaroop Kumar said: “The technical details, such as the capacity of water targeted to be stored and cost of the three check dams, will be revealed once the meeting with the Chief Minister is fruitful.”
Another source associated with the field level investigation observed that the Chief Minister recently had fixed a target of kick-starting the works of the check dams as early as possible, aimed at storing floodwater downstream of the Prakasam Barrage apart from addressing the rising salinity in the groundwater in Krishna district.
The cost of construction of the two check dams had previously been estimated at nearly ₹2,000 crore.
