Pulichintala may not meet Aug 15 deadline
Hyderabad: KL Rao-Pulichintala Irrigation Project, which got environmental clearance in 2005 and supposed to be completed by 2008, has not come in to reality till now.
A big dent to the public exchequer worth of Rs 714 crore witnessed due to the delay of the project. The cost of the project went up to Rs 1,280 crore from Rs 565.87 crore. The project was designed to construct a dam across the river Krishna at Pulichintala village in Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh.
The project is aimed at to create and stabilise irrigation for an ayacut of 13,08,849 acres including districts of Krishna (6,79,498 acres), Guntur (4,99,231 acres), Prakasam (72,120 acres) and West Godavari (58,000 acres).
The progress of the project was at snail's pace due to various hurdles including legal battle. Srinivasa Construction Company involved in the project's construction postponed it seven times because of the legal battle.
About 80 per cent of the project has been completed so far and only eleven gates out of 24 crest gates have been erected.
The works of power block, spill way and earth dam are still pending. The officials have set for the contractors an ambitious target of completing the dam to the non-over flow (NOF) level of 36 feet by August 15, 2013, but going by the pace at which the work is progressing currently the target looks over-ambitious.
The project had become essential for stabilising the Krishna Delta as it would be acting as a balancing reservoir with its 45.77 tmc capacity to sustain 11 lakh acres of the ayacut.
The rehabilitation and relief works witnessed in tardy progress and construction of new villages against the submerged villages was not completed so far. Interestingly, the officials have been still paying land compensation though it was started in 2006.
As per the performance audit of the project, it is estimated that about Rs 808.8 crore would come as revenue every year due to he crops and producing of 120 MW power.
It is also assessed that 3.43 lakh tons of food grains would be yielded under the project ayacut.
News Posted: 22 July, 2013
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