Rajahmundry: After the successful execution of the Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme on the Godavari river, which is meant to divert surplus water in the river to the Krishna delta at Pattisam village of Polavaram mandal in West Godavari, the state government is coming up with a similar scheme at Ramachandrapuram, located between Vangalapudi and Purushottapatnam, villages of Sitanagaram mandal in East Godavari. This is to ensure good supply of river water to the Yeleru canal ayacut, upland mandals and to meet industrial needs in Visakhapatnam — in a phased manner.
At a meeting recently, Chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu directed the East Godavari administration to establish the feasibility of taking up the lift irrigation project on the Godavari river. District Collector H. Arun Kumar and Polavaram irrigation project’s Left Main Canal (LMC) superintending engineer S. Sugunakar Rao inspected the area. Based on a tentative plan of the lift irrigation scheme, surplus water from the Godavari river will now be lifted at the said point and sent through the Polavaram LMC to Yeleru Canal to ensure adequate supply of water to the command area of Yeleru canal and also to several upland mandals in the district for cultivation of crops.
This exercise will be done in phase-I. In phase-II, the authorities will construct a regulator at the confluence of the Polavaram LMC and Yeleru Canal at Krishnavaram village of Jaggampeta mandal. The water will be stored in Yeleru reservoir for up to seven tmc ft and this water will be further diverted to Visakhapatnam to meet industrial need through Yeleru Left Main Canal.
The water resources authorities are carrying out a survey and are estimating the cost of the project.
Once the feasibility report is ready, the state government will invite bids and fix an agency to execute the work. Polavaram LMC superintending engineer S. Sugunakar Rao said, “Based on the directions from the government, we are working out the details on taking up a lift irrigation project on Godavari river between Vangalapudi and Purushottapatnam villages in East Godavari. It will take some time for the project to get the green signal for execution.”
