The Hindu 30.07.2010
GVMC keen on taking over Meghadrigedda
G.V. Prasada Sarma
| Seeks the nod of Irrigation Department |
Creation of storage space helps the corporation tackle crisis during summer
It also has a task of providing space for water from Polavaram Left Canal
VISAKHAPATNAM: With its reservoirs silted and storage capacity restricted, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is looking at improving them. It also has the onerous task of finding storage capacity for the water to be realised from the Polavaram Left Canal. The Polavaram project has been going through a re-tendering process.
The canal work taken up in the district has not been completed.
As part of improving the capacity of its reservoirs, the GVMC has written to the Irrigation Department to hand over the maintenance of the Meghadrigedda reservoir, with a capacity of 1 tmcft, to it. It intends to improve the capacity by 0.5 tmcft by de-silting it.
The Irrigation Department had asked the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration for his remarks on the proposal, Chief Engineer B. Jayarami Reddy told The Hindu.
During the severe water scarcity in summer, the GVMC had faced criticism from political parties that it failed to create space for storage for water from the lift scheme at Kateru on the Godavari when water was available. The creation of more space will help it tide over such situations in future and also comes in handy as and when the Polavaram Left Canal work is completed.
“We are firm on improving Meghadrigedda reservoir and the proposal would be seriously pursued at higher levels,” said an official of the GVMC.
Besides the reservoir, the capacity of the Kanithi Balancing Reservoir is also to be increased by double from the existing 0.5 tmcft capacity.
Another reservoir, by the side of the existing one at steel plant, has to be constructed to augment the capacity.
New reservoirs
Apart from the two, nine other places have been tentatively identified for reservoirs for the Polavaram Left Canal, and they include existing tanks as well.
A major new reservoir is proposed near Makavarapalem with a capacity of 4 tmcft.
As the Left Canal is a flood flow canal, it is proposed to store 14 tmcft in the reservoirs identified/created for the purpose.
Detailed report
The detailed project report is expected to be readied in the next three months.
The proposals will be included in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission Plus that is to be the continuation of the current urban mission that ends in 2012.
