PNS|Eluru
Minister for Irrigation Ambati Rambabu alleged that the wrong handling during the erstwhile Telugu Desam party regime led to the damage of Polavaram project diaphragm wall.
The irrigation minister along with other officials visited the Polavaram project on Wednesday and inspected the ongoing works at the project. The officials explained to him about the work. Later talking to the media, he said that he found fault with the TDP for taking the responsibility of the Polavaram project which had to be constructed by the Centre since it is a national project.
The Minister said that the coffer dam would be guaranteed for three years and during that time the earth cum rock fill dam would have to be constructed. But the previous government took up the work of lower and upper cofferdam without diverting the river. After the formation of their government, they completed the Lower and Upper Coffer Dams, the minister claimed.
The TDP government started the upper coffer dam in 2018 and the lower coffer dam in 2015. But because the previous government made a historic mistake by constructing the diaphragm wall first and then constructing the upper and lower coffer dams against the protocol, the diaphragm wall was damaged by the flood surge in the Godavari River last year, he said.
Minister Ambati Rambabu said that the government had corrected the mistake made by the previous government. “The present government completed the coffer dam, spillway, spill channel, pilot channel, approach channel and the gates of the spillway have been installed and steps have also been taken to divert the river water,” he observed.
“After examining the diaphragm wall, the experts of Central Water Corporation and National Hydro Project Corporation said that according to their suggestions, it will be decided whether to repair the diaphragm wall or to construct another diaphragm wall parallel to it,” the minister stated
“Now the river Godavari is receiving 1.2 lakh cusecs of flood water but the Polavaram project works are being carried out without any hindrances,” he clarified. Engineer in Chief Narayana Reddy, Chief Engineer Sudhakar Babu and Superintendent Narasimha Murthy were among those who were present.
