The fabrication and erection work of 48 crest gates of Polavaram Project, a multi-purpose irrigation dam, will start in November. About 300 metric tones of steel arrived today at the Gates Fabrication Centre at Polavaram Project site in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. By the end of April, another 2100 MT of steel will also arrive in a phased manner, around 15,000 MT of steel would be used to make the gates. The fabrication of the gates and installation would be completed by June 2018, sources said after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a review meeting today. Fabrication work of the 48 massive gates for the dam across river Godavari will commence this week.

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On February 1, the construction of the diaphragm wall was started at the project site. The diaphragm wall which is 1,500 metres long, 120 mts wide and 40 and 100 metres deep would the world’s biggest such wall when construction is complete.

In the first phase, 750 metres of wall would be constructed by June end after which work will stop during monsoon. The remaining 750 metres construction would start in December and completed by June 2018. The project is on schedule and the project may be completed by end of 2018 or early 2019, officials said.

On March 3, the Union Water Resources Ministry released Rs 1,981 crores funds for the Polavaram Project. The Centre will release nearly at total of Rs 3,000 crores for the project after it was accorded national project status, and Centre agreed to fund it through loans from Nabard. The Chief Minister also reviewed all the prioritized projects including Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi Project, the longest canal project in Rayalaseema; Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi project in Kadapa, and Veligonda, Vamsadhara.

As a hot summer is being predicted and drought like conditions may prevail in Rayalaseema region which receives very less rainfall, the AP Government today discussed the possibility of deploying “mobile lifts’’ to pump water to drought affected areas from the nearest water body.

“As part of the drought preparedness and mitigation plan for this summer, proposals are afoot to use mobile lifts to provide water to drought affected areas. A presentation was made by the officials today in the review meeting held on Polavaram,’’ an official said.

A pipeline network will be installed to lift water from rivers, canals or any surface water bodies. The mobile lifts will help in lifting of water from one place and pump to a water shortage area during this summer to mitigate drought. The pumps would either run on electricity or diesel depending on power availability. It has been decided to take up this project on a pilot basis in the districts of Ananatapur and Kurnool. Each unit of the mobile lift will cost nearly Rs 1.5 cores and can pump 1.4 cusecs of water. The pumped water can flow about 4 kilometers through gravity.

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