Kaleshwaram to be back in action soon; all 35 pumping units at three barrages ready

Irrigation officials firm on resuming the pumping operations under the project and keeping all the pump houses ready.

Hyderabad: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP), once written off as a wasteful expenditure by the ruling Congress party, could soon roar back into life, with Irrigation officials firm on resuming the pumping operations under the project and keeping all the pump houses ready.

The multi-stage project involves several pumping facilities. It has in all 35 units that manage the project’s outflows at the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages. These units play a crucial role in reverse pumping of water from the confluence point of the Godavari and Pranahita rivers to the Sripada Yellampalli project. The Kannepalli pump house comprises 17 giant motor pumps, each weighing 2,376 metric tonnes, and are meant for lifting water from Godavari in the first stage. These powerful pumps, known as ‘Baahubali motors’, have a capacity to lift 3,000 million cubic feet (TMC ft) of water every day. All of them are now kept ready for resuming operations.

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Since no impounding of water is allowed at this stage in the Medigadda barrage, the possibility of lifting from the natural flows has been examined. Only Medigadda barrage has been receiving some inflows, thanks to the contribution of the Pranahita river. Lifting of water from Medigadda would be possible if the inflows are in the order of some 30,000 cusecs to 35,000 cusecs. The inflows at Medigadda are in the order of 17000 cusecs now and are expected to be doubled within a week. Lifting of water to the designed capacity of two TMC a day may not be immediately possible without building the storage level. The project authorities are of the view that the river would receive heavy floods from the second week of July to September. The need for building the storage would arise only from October when there would be a dip in the inflows.

They are planning to build a makeshift cofferdam or weir kind of structure after three months to retain water in the Medigadda Barrage to facilitate pumping into the Annaram Barrage in the lean period. The pump houses at Annaram and Sundilla barrage were also overhauled and kept ready to resume operations. No significant inflows were, however, received at both the barrages so far. The interim works recommended by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on the two barrages were in their crucial final phase. They would be completed in less than a week, said officials.

Water can be impounded in the two barrages once the works are completed and final clearance was received from the State government as well as the NDSA. The NDSA team is expected to revisit the barrages soon.