Desilting works come to a halt in Godavari

Rajamahendravaram: The desilting work in river Godavari came to a standstill as the government is not taking any initiative in this regard to store more water. Two years ago, the desilting operations are conducted in the upstream of Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in the river to remove sedimentary material deposited in a radius of six kilometres from the barrage.

Three decades ago, desilting operation was conducted in the river and again, two years back, the work was taken up to increase water carrying capacity in the river. Earlier, the government planned to conduct desilting operations in the river for every two years.

Moreover, in the desilting operations conducted two years ago, the sand recovered from the river was taken by Tourism department and levelled Pichukalanka to a height of 25-feet from riverbed level to develop it as a tourist spot. Meanwhile, sand desilted from the river stocked at Kotilingala Ghat and what happened to the sand stock is a dollar question.

According to an official of Water Resources Department (WRD), the Tourism department did not pay the outstanding dues amount of Rs 15 crore to the department towards desilting charges.

The desilting is aimed to store more water by removing sedimentary material as after the completion of Polavaram Project there was no scope for deposition of sand dunes, he added. Because of the outstanding dues, the department is not able to execute desilting operations in the river.