Polavaram sluice gates raised to release water

Polavaram: The multipurpose project at Polavaramis moving towards the realisation of its goals.

Megha Engineering and Infrastructures is moving forward to complete the work on time despite natural disasters, according to communiqué from the engineering giant.

In spite of heavy floods on one hand and the Corona pandemic on the other, the Polavaram project works are continuing at a double speed. The pace of Polavaram works increased after they were undertaken by the MEIL. While the government has proposed to complete 4.03 lakh cubic meters of concrete work within 12 months starting from April 2020 to March 2021, the MEIL has shown its mettle by completing 5.58 lakh cubic meter works.

The construction of the world's largest spillway bridge slab was completed. Concrete work, grouting work in the gallery is going on at a fast pace. In addition to the government's intention, the MEIL has so far done 2.98 lakh cubic meters of concrete work on the spillway. Of the 48 gates to be set up for the Spillway Bridge, 42 have been installed. At the same time, 84 of 96 hydraulic cylinders are already fitted. With the help of 24 power packs all the 48 gates can be lifted at once. Two gates can be operated with the help of one power pack. Already 42 gates have been raised and floodwaters have been released to the bottom.

Installation of all the ten river sluice gates at Polavaram Spillway was completed and 20 hydraulic cylinders were fitted. All the sluice gates were raised to release water downstream.

The MEIL has completed excavation work on Polavaram Approach Channel at a record level. Godavari flow was diverted into the spill channel. About 6.6 km of the Godavari River was diverted from left to right, creating an engineering marvel.

The MEIL has so far completed excavation of about 33.39 lakh cubic meters of soil, along with 2.41 lakh cubic meters of concrete work in the spill channel. The most crucial 902 hill excavation work in Polavaram has been completed with 5, 72,087 cubic meters.

The construction of the upper cofferdam up to 39 metres was done as against the full height of about 42.5 metres. About 15.65 lakh cubic meters of rock filling work has been completed in the upper cofferdam so far.

Similarly, the construction work has already been completed to a height of about 21 meters as against its full height of about 30 meters.

Vibro composition work of 11.96 lakh cubic meters has already been done as part of Project Gap-2. Similarly, 1.61 lakh cubic meters of sand filling works have been completed. Along with the spillway in the Polavaram reservoir, the Earth-cum-Rock Fill Dam (Gap-2) is also crucial. It is built on sand dunes on the banks of the River Godavari.