Lift irrigation scheme for Amaravati region

Guntur: Measures to save new capital Amaravati from inundation are being taken following the Pattiseema model.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu would lay the foundation stone for lift irrigation  scheme of Stre-am of Sorrow Kondaveeti Vagu at 11.25 am on March 1. The AP government has sanctioned Rs 237 crore funds for the floodwater lift irrigation scheme which would be constructed near Seetanagaram PWD workshop on the banks of Krishna river.

A pump house between Krisha river bund and PWD Workshop and 132 KV power sub-station would be constructed under Kondaveeti Vagu lift irrigationscheme. A total of 16 electric motors would be fitted in the pump house to lift the stream water into Krishna river and every pump would lift 350 cusecs of water into the river.

In total, 15,000 cusecs of water would flow in the Kondaveeti Vagu during the time of floods and heavy rains. The stream had been narrowed in majority of the areas creating obstruction for the free flow of water.

The Vagu causes submersion of about 13,500 acres during the floods and out of this, 10,600 acres of land is within the core capital region. Kondaveeti Vagu stops the transportation between Guntur-old Amaravati and Vijayawada-Tullur-old Amaravati due to overflowing of the stream in various areas.

The stream was encroached in many areas of the Amaravati Capital Region narrowing the flow and further overflowing into the adjacent lands and villages. Already the works of widening bed level of the stream to 120 meters from present 30 meters are under progress. With the success of Pattisemma water lift pumping scheme, the government has decided to implement the Pattiseema model to Kond-aveeti Vagu. Locals, M. Subba Rao and others recollected the nightmare of Kondaveeti Vagu inundation, and said that it is ha-ppy news to Amaravati public as the decades-old menace of the Stream of Sorrow is going to solved.

Irrigation superintending engineer V.L.S.P. Chowdary said that flood water pumping into Krishna river through motors would save the entire Amaravati Capital Region from inundation. He added that two reservoirs at Krishnayapalem and Neerukonda would be constructed to save and supply the water.