Seven turbines of 139 MW each, embedded about 330 metres in underground tunnels, will soon come alive, pumping up 2-3 tmc of water from the Godavari river system upstream and helping create a chain of barrages in Telangana. The project has been set up as a part of Package 8 of the Rs. 85,000 crore Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd and the State-owned BHEL. Dry runs of a couple of turbines have already been conducted and work is on at a hectic pace to complete five of them by July-end and two more by the year-end, in an environment where oxygen is scarce and has to be constantly pumped from outside.

Taking reporters through the site and explaining the complexity and magnitude of the project somewhere deep under the ground in the Surge Pool, B Srinivas Reddy, Director of MEIL, said, “The pump house is backed by three massive surge pools and 14.9 km tunnel works located below 140 metres. A structure of such size and magnitude with a potential to pump up to 3 TMC of water per day is the first such one to be set up.”

Reddy said, “Dry runs have been conducted and we are geared up to fully operate them by July-August during the floods. These are designed to serve for about 90 days during the monsoons. Once operational, we will not be able to see the project in such form.”

In order to meet deadlines and get the turbines and other equipment ready before the deadlines, MEIL has made arrangements to airlift electro-mechanical equipment and other critical inputs. It is procuring key equipment from several countries, including Austria, Germany and Italy, Reddy said.

The Ramadugu pumping station, which is part of Kaleshwaram, considered an engineering marvel, has seen excavation of about 21.6 lakh cubic meters of soil and rock from a depth of 130 metres to build the powerhouse, where 4,75 lakh cubic metres of concrete was used.

BHEL has supplied motors, pumps, mechanical equipment and accessories for the pump house. While five of the seven units will be ready in Phase I, two others will be operational in Phase II.

The pump house consists of two parallel tunnels with a diameter of 10.5 metres and about 4,133 metres long (around 4.2 km-long) carved out and lining work completed.

Three surge pools (or mega tanks) have been created underground to store water and help each pump motor, weighing around 2,376 tonnes, come alive.

Reddy said Megha has specialised in the irrigation sector over the years and has now crossed a turnover of Rs. 20,000 crore and commands an order book of Rs. 62,000 crore. MEIL has been given a Credit rating of A+ by India Ratings & Research.

The company entered the Limca Book of Records for executing the Pattisam Lift irrigation project on time without budget escalation. The project pumps the Godavari river water to the Krishna and thereby links them up through a pumping network in Andhra Pradesh.