The Hindu 27.04.2010
Karapuzha project to be dedicated to nation in May
A Correspondent
End to water woes: A view of the Karapuzha irrigation project area.
KALPETTA: The Karapuzha irrigation project in the district is getting ready for partial commissioning to irrigate 957 hectares of land.
A trial run was completed successfully a few weeks ago and the project will be dedicated to the nation by the second week of May, P.K. Jacob, Executive Engineer of the project, told The Hindu on Monday.
The project envisages a dam across the Karapuzha, a tributary of the Cauvery, a reservoir, and channels to irrigate 5,221 hectares of land in nine panchayats in three taluks.
The approval of the Planning Commission was received in 1978 and work on the project started in 1980. The preliminary estimate was Rs.7.6 crore, but as much as Rs.259 crore has been spent on the project so far, P.R. Sasikumar, Assistant Executive Engineer, said. The revised estimate shows that as much as Rs.429 crore is needed for the completion of the dam, he said.
Though the construction of the right bank channel, measuring 8.8 km, and the left bank channel, measuring 16.74 km, were completed last ear, five breaches occurred during the last monsoon. So, the full potential of the dam cannot be utilised for irrigation. However, 12 km of the channels can be used to irrigate as much as 300 hectares of land at the time of partial commissioning, Mr. Sasikumar said.
Work on three branches of the left bank channel and 18 distributaries of both is yet to be completed. These will be built after a joint verification by the irrigation, agriculture and revenue department officials, he added.
Though the total water storage capacity of the dam is 76.5 million cubic metres, water will be stored till half that capacity (up to the spillway) to prevent submersion of catchment areas where land acquisition procedures are yet to be completed.
As much as 1,238 of 1,250 hectares of land has been acquired for the reservoir and 126 hectares acquired for the construction of the channels. A drinking water project of the Kerala Water Authority is nearing completion for the supply of 15 million litres of water from the reservoir to the Kalpetta municipality and the Meenangadi and Ambalavayal panchayats.
