Hyderabad: Culvert at Gaganpahad planned to tackle overflowing Appa Cheruvu

Rajendranagar: In an attempt to solve the issue of overflowing Appa Cheruvu Lake at Gaganpahad area under Rajendranagar, the authorities of the Irrigation Department and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have decided to build a culvert beneath the under construction bridge at Gagan Pahad crossroad to allow the surplus water flow to Pedda Cheruvu, another lake located downstream.

In this regard, a team of officials from Revenue, Irrigation and NHAI has recently inspected the area and decided to lay the culvert under the bridge to allow the excess floodwaters pass through the underground lane, instead of flowing on the surface of busy Bangalore highway hampering the flow of traffic.

As the culvert will come up beneath the bridge, the electricity officials were asked to elevate the existing electric poles on both sides of the road to at least 100-feet high in order to allow bridge works move smoothly.

Mandal Revenue Officer of Rajendranagar, K Chandrashekar said, "Officials from Revenue, NHAI, Irrigation and Electricity departments have recently met and discussed the issue of overflowing waters. After much deliberation, they have decided to lay a box type culvert under the bridge to allow the floodwater of Appa Cheruvu flow easily to Pedda Cheruvu at Premavathipet before reaching the Musi River."

Affirming the same, Assistant Executive Engineer, GHMC, Irrigation Wing Vishwam said, "There is a requirement of culvert of 10-metre wide and 2-metre depth to allow overflowing water of Appa Cheruvu to reach Pedda Cheruvu. We submitted the request to the Roads and Building (R&B) department, and later came to know that they have grounded the works accordingly at the site. There are two stormwater drains of less intensity already existing on the road, built by the R&B department earlier. We just want to increase the diameter size to allow excess stormwater pass through the culvert easily."

Every time the Appa Cheruvu overflows during the rainy season, the traffic movement comes to a grinding halt with the floodwater inundating the Bangalore Highway at Gaganpahad crossroad. This has become common since 2020 floods wherein several died besides heavy loss of properties. Appa Cheruvu is one of the lakes on the city outskirts facing constant threat of encroachment. Incursion, almost from all sides, is choking the water body. Though the Revenue officials recently served notices to the encroachers, no follow up has been done yet to clear the same.