Galeru-Nagari project works gain pace in Chittoor district

Tirupati: At last, the works on the much awaited Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS) have gained momentum in Chittoor district, the tail end district of the project. 

The works on the reservoirs taken up as part of GNSS including Mallemadugu, Venugopal Saagar, Vepagunta and Advikothur are going on full swing. The land acquisition for the canals will be taken up after the construction of these reservoirs. 

It may be noted that the government had decided to bring water from Telugu Ganga project in Nellore district instead of from the GNSS main canal in Kadapa district.  With an eye on the 2019 election, the TDP government changed the source of water for GNSS temporarily to see water is provided for irrigation before 2019 March in the eastern part of Chittoor district, the home turf of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.  

Under the changed plan, only two against 7 reservoirs under GNSS in Chittoor district will be taken up on priority basis for irrigation of at least about 50,000 acres in Chittoor district by March 2019.  Water will be lifted from Telugu Ganga project at Alturupadu in Nellore district and carried through pipeline to Somasila-Swarnamukhi Link Canal (SSLC), 5 km away, which will be extended up to Merlapaka village near Yerpedu in Chittoor district where a reservoir will be constructed under the changed plan.

From Merlapaka water will be again lifted by pumping to take it through pipeline to Mallemadugu reservoir, 8 km away on the upper reaches. Administrative sanction was given for Rs 300 crore works covering extension of SSLC up to Merlapaka reservoir, laying pipeline linking Merlapaka and Mallemadugu reservoirs through pipeline.

Irrigation Executive Engineer, Renigunta Division S Venkataramana said that 40 percent of the Rs 60 crore Mallemadugu reservoir work  is over and the remaining work would be completed by December this year. 

The present capacity of the reservoir is 0.2 TMC which will be increased to 2.65 TMC  by increasing the height of the dam he said.  Mallemadugu is pivotal to GNSS in the sense water will be released to other reservoirs from it including Venugopal  Sagar, Vepagunta and Adavi Kothuru, the last point of GNSS.  

GNSS Tirupati division Executive Engineer G Yerri Swamy said 15 per cent of the Venugopal Sagar works and 75 percent of Vepagunta and Adavikothur reservoir works were completed.