The Hindu    24.08.2012

Yeleru canal comes under AMC

GVMC seems to have put on backburner its plan for long-term maintenance of Yeleru canal, a major source of water supply to the city and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, for the time being. The tenders are likely to be called for the next season, according to sources.

For now the annual maintenance contract of the 156-km canal has been given dividing it into two parts and paying Rs.60 lakh each. While earlier contracts were only for patrolling, de-weeding and any maintenance work including breaches has been added now.

As a consequence, the expenditure to plug the breach that had occurred to Vemulapudi bund early on Monday was borne by the contractor. However, officials admit that advanced strengthening work on the bund would have saved lot of expenditure to the contractor. Besides, water between 10 mgd and 15 mgd was wasted because of the breach.

The contractor should have been aware of the weak bund as it was once de-watered for maintenance work.

The breach was caused as water was allowed to flow to the brim to meet the requirement of the steel plant resulting in the breach. However, it was difficult to identify such spots, said officials. Municipal Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyulu mooted ‘for better maintenance’ awarding contract for three years fixing a baseline cost decided taking into account expenditure incurred during the last five years.

After that if the water yield crosses 50 per cent for every 10 per cent increase incentives from the industrial supply was mooted.By increasing the carrying capacity of the canal and revenue from it, the corporation intends to reach a zero maintenance situation. However, the proposal was criticised as privatising the canal.

As of now pre-qualification tenders have been called and only one responded. This has been cited as lack of interest on the part of contractors for the move. Sources said the conditions would be discussed with the one who applied and later tenders would be called.

The maintenance of the canal has become important as about 50 per cent of the water released at the canal is lost owing to seepage, evaporation, pilferage and breaches. A Rs.1900-crore plan is prepared to lay a pipeline from Yeleru canal.