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Kaleshwaram project: Engineers facing uphill task in restoring 2 pump houses
According to an official, six out of 17 pumps at Kannepalli were totally destroyed due to the collapse of the retaining wall that separates the pump house from the river. The engineers are now engaged in rebuilding the retaining wall
Hyderabad
The Telangana irrigation department is facing an uphill task in the restoration of two major pump houses of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on the Godavari, which suffered massive damage during heavy floods to the river on July 14 this year.
While the Kannepalli pump house at Medigadda village of Mahadevpur block in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district was totally devastated, another mega pump house at Annaram in the upstream of the Godavari near Manthani of Peddapalli district also suffered heavy damages.
After struggling for nearly three months, the irrigation engineers on October 8 managed to bring into operation one of the 12 gigantic pumps of the Annaram pump house. “One of the motors was completely restored and the engineers could pump water from the Annaram reservoir into the canal. Rest of the pumps will also be restarted one after the other in a phased manner,” said K Penta Reddy, advisor to the state government on lift irrigation schemes.
He said the restoration work at Kannepalli pump house which suffered the maximum damage was also going on in full swing and efforts were being made to bring the motors into operation at the earliest.
However, department officials say it is easier said than done. “Everything is done in the most secretive manner. The authorities are putting pressure on the engineers to restart at least one pump at Kannepalli by November or at the most December to send a message to the people that the Kaleshwaram project has been restored,” an official associated with the project said, on condition of anonymity.
While in Annaram, the engineers have to restart 11 more pumps, in Kannepalli, they have to restore 17 giant motor pumps, each weighing 2,376 metric tonnes and having 40 megawatts capacity – popularly referred to as “Baahubali motors,” as they have the capacity to lift 3000 million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water every day.
According to the official quoted above, six out of 17 pumps at Kannepalli were totally destroyed due to the collapse of the retaining wall that separates the pump house from the river. The engineers are now engaged in rebuilding the retaining wall.
“Since these six pumps are part of the Kaleshwaram expansion project aimed at lifting additional one tmc ft of water, the authorities are not attaching much priority to them for now. Their immediate task is to restore the remaining 11 pumps, which are meant for lifting two tmc ft of water for providing irrigation during the Rabi season,” he said.
He said the motors of the pump house which were completely submerged in slush and mud of the flood water were now being separated, cleaned and dried up. “Experts were summoned to take up the restoration works and the damaged parts of the engines and electric panels are being replaced. It will take another three to four months to bring all these 11 pumps back into action,” the official said.
But it involves huge money. According to tentative estimates of the department, it would require ₹1150 crore for restoring 11 pumps at Kannepalli and another ₹100 crore at Annaram. “But it might cross ₹1500 crore by the time all the pumps are repaired and brought back into operation. In the subsequent phases, another six pumps of Kannepalli have to be restored,” the official said.
Though special secretary (irrigation) Rajat Kumar said soon after the disaster that the entire cost of the restoration of pump houses would be borne by the contractors, an irrigation engineer familiar with the development said the works would not come under “defect liability period” (DLP) and hence, the government itself would have to repay every paisa to the contractor.
“Given the mounting cost of the project, it will be a huge burden on the government,” the official quoted above added.
The mighty Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, which is a redesigned version of originally planned Pranahita-Chevella project, was started in May 2016. The project, considered to be the costliest irrigation scheme in the country with a total cost exceeding ₹1 lakh crore, was completed in phases – the Lakshmi barrage was completed in 2019, followed by Saraswati in 2020 and Paravati (Sundilla) in the same year.
The project is aimed at irrigating over 10 million acres of land in northern Telangana. The construction of canal works and a chain of reservoirs as part of the project is still going on.
