The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Team inspects Palemvagu

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Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Team inspects Palemvagu

Staff Reporter

Team members check records of water levels in dam
People in the area questioning about the project design

BHADRACHALAM: The technical committee, which visited Palemvagu project on Tuesday to take stock of the breach, that drained the entire reservoir in less than half-a-day, would submit its report on Wednesday.

The two-member committee comprising of B. S. N. Reddy, Engineer-in-chief ( Major irrigation) and P. S. R. Subramanyam, Engineer in Chief ( Medium Irrigation) spent about two hours at the project site and talked to the local people and the project officials. The team members had reportedly asked for the project records after noting down the water levels in the dam for the past one month. The panel also met local officials at Bhadrachalam.

Bund washed away

A senior official from the administration has said that “it cannot be called a breach when the whole bund was washed away.” Breach can be caused because of any local fault. But the project bund was thrown away right from the level of the dead drop of the project. Palemvagu project was more or less similar to the soil conditions in which the Taliperu reservoir was constructed.

While Taliperu could irrigate some 25000 acres with storage of just 0.5 tmc feet without any interruption in the irrigation schedule, the ayacut of Palemvagu, which was little over 10,000 acres (with a storage capacity of some 1.3 tmc feet) was often left dry. He said that the people in the area were questioning more about the project design. There was a mention of gated spillway in the project report. But it was missing in the final shape of the project. “It is quite depressing” and nothing could be said of the restoration work immediately.

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