Tirupati: Puttur summer storage tank bund caves in

Tirupati: Chittoor District Collector M Hari narayananalong with Irrigation and Revenue officials on Tuesday visited the Puttur summer storage tank to inspect the damaged portion of the tank bund and the repair works which are under progress.

Directing the Irrigation and Public Health department officials to complete the repair works at the earliest, the Collector said the residents of Puttur and Eswarapuram localities in the lower reaches of the tank were alerted after the tank bund damage was noticed. However, he said there is no need for any panic as the authorities are taking up precautionary measures.

The officials explained about the damage to the tank bund of summer storage tank which was completed 10 years back.

A crack was noticed on the tank bund in the morning which grew leading to the bund caving into a depth of 2-3 metres, the officials explained.

It may be noted that the summer storage tank construction was taken up to resolve the water problem during summer months during which water requirement will be more for Puttur town and surrounding villages in 2006 and the works were completed in 2011.

The summer storage tank was located within the Puttur tank spread over 18 acres and thanks to the rains last year the tank is now 60 per cent full.

The partial caving of the tank bund triggered allegations that it was due to substandard work of the contractor while many others observe that the blasting in the four quarries in the hillock near the tank might have caused the damage.

Chittoor RDO Renuka, superintending engineers (SEs) Vijay kumar (Irrigation), Venkatesh (Public Health) and other officials were present.