41 km long flood bank to come along Godavari river in Mulugu

Mulugu: To prevent flooding of villages during the rainy season, the Irrigation department is planning to construct a flood bank along the shores of the Godavari River in Eturnagaram and Mangapet mandals in the district soon. According to officials, the flood bank will be constructed for a 10 km stretch near Ramannagudem, 6 km stretch […]

Mulugu: To prevent flooding of villages during the rainy season, the Irrigation department is planning to construct a flood bank along the shores of the Godavari River in Eturnagaram and Mangapet mandals in the district soon.

According to officials, the flood bank will be constructed for a 10 km stretch near Ramannagudem, 6 km stretch at Ramnagar and 25 km in Mangapet mandal. Though the officials prepared estimations with Rs 137 crore and submitted the same to the State government, sources said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao wanted to the officials to revise the estimations by increasing the height of the flood bank so as to prevent even floods of the kind that was recorded in July this year.

According to the authorities, the flood level in Godavari at Kaleshwaram, located in the upstream of Medigadda Barrage, surpassed the previous highest level of 107.05 metres, recorded in the 1986 floods, touching a maximum of 110 metres in July, 2022. At Medigadda Barrage, the peak flood was recorded as about 28.71 lakh cusecs at that time. During this time, many low-lying areas along the Godavari downstream of the Tupakulagudem barrage were inundated causing a trail of destruction.

Following this, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao visited the flood affected areas and promised to find a permanent solution to the flooding of the areas along the Godavari River by constructing the flood bank. Meanwhile, the irrigation officials said that they were revising the estimations, and the project cost may touch Rs 150 crore.

On other hand, the repair works to the Eturunagaram -Ramannagudem Godavari embankment which
was sunken and eroded due to heavy floods during the monsoon season are going in full swing.

As the revetment was washed away and the flood entered villages of Eturunagaram and Ramannagudem, the officials have taken up the repair with Rs 80 lakhs to repair the 125- metre-long flood bank. The 125 meters long bank is being constructed with a height of 10 metres.

Executive Engineer (EE) V Jagadeesh said that steps are being taken to make the embankment strong to prevent flooding. Meanwhile, farmers of Ramannagudem are also requesting that the authorities carry out revetment work at Pushkar Ghat to prevent the bank from further collapsing.