Collector urged to complete Gundlamotu project

Ongole: Representatives of Giddalur Taluk Saguneeru Taguneeru Sadhana Samithi met the Collector Dr Pola Bhaskara on Thursday and requested him to complete the Gundlamotu project, a 0.3 TMC feet capacity project that was under construction for the last 45 years.

Samithi Chairman Bareddy Narayana Reddy briefed the Collector that the Gundlamotu project was announced in 1960 and its construction was started in 1975 with a capacity of 0.37 TMC feet storage to provide drinking water to 14 villages. The project under construction was breached by floods in 1979, 1980, 1986 and 1996 but restarted in 2004, he stated.

He demanded the government to complete the Gundlamotu project to harvest the rainwater and supply the same to quench the thirst of 14 villages and provide water for irrigation to around 2,000 acres.

He said the Giddalur area was not in the Veligonda project area and advised the government to link Enumuleru and Sagileru to Telugu Ganga canal through the Gundlamotu dam so that the same quantity of water can be utilised by thirsty Giddalur town. He also suggested to the government to see the nearby 5 tanks also filled with Gundlamotu water to make another 1,000 acres of land fertile and increase groundwater levels.

He proposed the government to take advantage of the construction of Anantapur to Amaravati six-lane expressway and the abandoned meter-gauge railway line to lay pipeline linking Telugu Ganga to Giddalur. He calculated that the Enumuleru and Sagileru in Nallamala forest could provide about 5 TMC feet of rainwater every year and supplying the same to Giddalur could end the thirst of the denizens.