Andhra Pradesh govt sets new deadline for completing Veligonda irrigation project

Vijayawada: The state govt has decided to complete Veligonda irrigation project in Prakasam district as early as possible.The fate of the major irrigation project has been hanging in balance for about two decades. Taking a request from TDP legislators from Prakasam district into consideration, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu directed irrigation minister Nimmala Ramanaidu to take all possible measures to expedite the project works. The CM made it clear that the Veligonda project should be completed within a year and dedicated to the people.Veligonda project was designed to cater to irrigation and drinking water needs of upland areas of Prakasam, Nellore and YSR districts. Following the chief minister's instructions, the irrigation minister inspected the project site along with a team of engineers.Ramanaidu directed the officials to ready a plan for completion of every component with separate deadlines. He took stock of the latest situation at the project site with the officials and found that just one of the four distributaries were completed and lining of tunnel was also pending. "We needed to gear up to complete the project by 2025. Ready the plan for completion of every component immediately," said Ramanaidu.The officials explained about the construction of a wall between two regulators and transport of nearly 4 lakh cubic meters of soil removed from the tunnels to Kothur village. The officials said that about 15 meters of lining work in tunnel-I was pending while bench cutting work for about 5km was pending in tunnel-II. The minister asked the officials to submit a report about the contractor who left the head regulator work in the middle without completion. He also wanted the officials to ready the expenditure projects to each component so that they could take the approval from the chief minister for the early completion of the project. Special chief secretary G Sai Prasad, ENC M Venkateswara Rao were present at the review.
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