VIJAYAWADA: The urgent works that are needed to prevent water logging of hundreds of acres of agricultural lands and inundation of houses in villages and areas of the city that are on either side of Budameru rivulet are pending with various departments of the government.

A scheme to take up some urgent improvements that are critical to the Velagaleru regulator and left flood bank of the regulator at an estimated cost of Rs.6.73 crores is awaiting administrative approval.

Similarly, a project to modernise the course of the Budameru rivulet from Velagaleru regulator to Enikepadu under-tunnel with an estimated cost of Rs. 72.31 crores is pending with the office of Indira Sagar Right Main Canal Circle at Dowleswaram. So is a proposal to increase the discharge capacity of the diversion channel and strengthen the regulator at Velagaleru village with an estimated cost of Rs. 7.92 crores, which is pending with the Finance Department.

Review meeting

The scheme to improve Velagaleru regulator and its left flood bank was tabled at the review meeting chaired by Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah when he was here earlier this month, but nothing concrete materialised.

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, during one of his visits to the district a year ago, sanctioned Rs. 6.73 crores for the improvement of the regulator but nothing came of it till today.

Budameru rivulet, which has earned for itself the name `Sorrow of Vijayawada', goes into spate every couple of years, causing serious damage to standing crop and property. Standing crop in hundreds of acres in Gudivada, Nandivada and Bapulapadu mandals was damaged when the rivulet went into spate following heavy rains in its catchment area in May 2006. A regulator was constructed across the rivulet in 1960 to divert 7,500 cusecs of floodwater into Krishna River through a diversion channel.

The rivulet's maximum discharge for a normal rainfall is calculated at 24,500 cusecs. But a record flood of 35,356 cusecs was received in 1989, thus causing extensive crop and property damage.

Attempts were made to increase the discharge of the diversion channel from the current 7,500 cusecs to 15,000 cusecs. The 12-km channel was widened, except from the ninth km to 11th km. This stretch of the channel could not be widened because of continuous release of water used for cooling in the Vijayawada Thermal Power Station (VTPS) into the diversion channel round the year. So, the discharge capacity of the channel remains at 7,500 cusecs effectively.

Since there is no improvement of any kind since 2006, history is likely to repeat itself if even if there is a moderate to heavy rainfall this monsoon.

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