25 minor irrigation tanks proposed in Srikakulam district

Srikakulam: Availability of water to store in Vamsadhara reservoir is a crucial issue, opined Vamsadhara project superintending engineer M Surendar Reddy. He convened a meeting at the project office here on Sunday with both working and retired engineers.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that at present they can divert eight tmc feet of water into the reservoir which is located at Hiramandal through Katragada side weir. But total capacity of the reservoir is 19.5 tmc feet of water and another 11.5 tmc feet of water need to be pooled up into the reservoir.

In addition to side weir, a barrage was proposed across Vamsadhara river at Neradi village in Bhamini mandal for which the Odisha government was objecting as it lands will be submerged. They also discussed on enhancement of capacity of Gotta Barrage canals from 3,000 cusecs to 6,000 cusecs. The Gotta Barrage located across Vamsadhara at Gotta village which is an old project on the river.

By enhancing the canals capacity, they can irrigate another one lakh acres, the SE explained. Total 25 minor irrigation tanks were proposed across district to irrigate tail end areas also, the SE added. Irrigation and Vamsadhara project engineers G Ghani Raju, B Sekhar Rao, K Gopala Rao, M Seetharam, retired engineers C Radakrishna, B Suryanarayana and G Prabhakara Rao were present.