Pattiseema canal suffer breaches, minister oversees restoration works

VIJAYAWADA: The Polavaram Right Main canal carrying the Godavari water into the Krishna through the Pattiseema scheme suffered a breach near Pallerlamudi village in Krishna district on Monday. According to information, the Irrigation department executed aqueduct works at a point intersecting the canal and the Ramileru. The alleged haste in which the slab works were carried out without even proper curing is said to the be the reason for the breaches.

Faced with recurrent water crisis in the Krishna delta, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu relaunched the lift scheme on a full-scale a few days ago as part of the endeavour to pump 4300 cusecs a day to meet the irrigation needs. The measure also intended to save the pilgrims from facing water problems in having a holy dip in the river during the Krishna pushkarams. The canal designed during the period of late YS Rajasekhar Reddy as Chief Minister in 2005 as part of the Polavaam project runs for a distance of a little over 170kms from the Polavaram to the end point at Ibrahimpatnam in the upstream of the Prakasam Barrage.

In the meantime, the TDP government conceived the Pattiseema lift scheme at an estimated cost of Rs 1300cr which later escalated up to Rs 2,300cr. The lift scheme is aimed to come to the rescue of the water-starved Krishna delta as a temporary arrangement until the Polavaram dam, which is mired in one controversy or the other, is completed. The peasant organisations cry foul over the poor quality of works leading to breaches in the canal