Pulichintala crosses June 'deadline' Project Has Miles To Go..

HYDERABAD: Despite chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy asserting in December last year that come what may water for agriculture would be released from the Pulichintala irrigation project in June 2009, the project is nowhere near completion.
Pulichintala happens to be the first Jalayagnam project taken up under engineering procurement and construction (EPC) system in 2005.Sources said the project will be delayed by another one year. Originally estimated to cost Rs 180 crore, the estimated cost now has escalated to over Rs 600 crore.
Ironically, the Pulichintala irrigation project was started by the TDP government in 1988 and the Congress, while in the opposition in 2003, had opposed it tooth and nail and some Congress workers had even set some equipment on fire in Nalgonda district.
Later after the Congress came to power in 2004, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders opposed the project, but the government brushing aside all the objections, started works in June 2005. It was in December 2008, while addressing women self-help groups in Vijayawada, the chief minister had made a categorical statement that come what may, water would be released from Pulichintala reservoir from June, 2009. The project falls under Krishna and Guntur districts and borders Nalgonda district.
According to the engineering schedule, the project was to be completed by June 2009 and for this concrete works of 1200 cubic metres per day should have been completed. In reality, only about 200 cubic metres of works per day is going on at present.
The project is supposed to have 24 crest gates but so far works on only nine gates have reached the crest level while 15 others are at various stages. To construct 24 gates, about 10,000 metric tonnes of steel is required but according to officials, only 3700 metric tonnes of steel has been imported.
On the other hand, the government is yet to construct houses for the project oustees which alone is likely to cost about Rs 300 crore. Sources say that the project does not even have necessary engineering staff to expedite the works. It is said that the work of three superintendent engineers is being done by one SE.
With the irrigation department all set to release water from the Krishna to Prakasam barrage by third week of June, construction works cannot be taken up till October.
Once completed, the balancing reservoir will have a capacity to hold 40 tmcft of water discharged from the Nagarjuna Sagar and would benefit farmers even in the Telangana region. Half of the water now going waste into the Bay of Bengal can be utilised for generation of 190 MW of power during non agriculture season and can be supplied to the tail end areas of the Nagarjuna Sagar while another half can be used for cultivation of crops in Telangana districts.