Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Irrigation dept. and thermal power plant at loggerheads

VIJAYAWADA: Irrigation Department officials and authorities of Dr. Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) at Ibrahimpatnam, which is known earlier as VTPS, are at loggerheads yet again, and this time it is over the way to increase the carrying capacity of a 1.8-km stretch of Budameru diversion channel from the current 10,000 cusecs to 37,550 cusecs. Across this stretch are several water mains and a bridge that are crucial to the NTTPS. Though NTTPS authorities were told by a person no less than Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to look for an alternative for releasing water used for cooling purposes, the officials concerned seem to be vacillating about how to go about it.

There is also the problem of shifting the water mains cutting across the diversion channel. Unfortunately for NTTPS, the Chief Minister had set a deadline of 40 days for increasing the capacity of the 12-km-long diversion channel, putting tremendous pressure on them.

The conflict between the Irrigation Department and the thermal power plant is as old as the plant itself. Irrigation officials feel that due importance is not being given to Prakasam Barrage, which acts as a weir for pushing water into a network of canals that irrigate 13 lakh acres in four districts.

Irrigation officials contend that maintaining a water level of 12 feet at the barrage throughout the year, to enable water to flow into the power plant’s cooling canal by gravity, is a danger to the structure. Before the plant came into existence, water upstream was depleted for some duration every summer to maintain the barrage. This had to be stopped for the sake of the power plant.

The safety of the barrage is an issue that kept smouldering for nearly four decades. Finally with the backing of the Central Water Commission (CWC), irrigation authorities were able to get the cash-rich AP Genco, the holding organisation of the power plant, to construct cooling towers, making the thermal plant partially independent.

Arrangements were made to pump water required for the cooling towers directly from the river, making it unnecessary to maintain the 12-foot level at the barrage. After that, water upstream the barrage was depleted to strengthen its foundations under the guidance of an experts committee. But the water mains that carried water to the cooling towers and made the thermal plant independent of the level at Prakasam barrage have today become impediments for the widening of the diversion channel.

While NTTPS experts have come up with two alternatives to resolve the deadlock, the Irrigation Department has come out with a different alternative, altogether. The AP Genco has called for tenders to engage private consultants with the technical know-how to propose an ‘amicable solution’. The bids were closed on November 20 and a decision is awaited.

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