Polavaram water in a year: Chandrababu Naidu

Polavaram (WG Godavari dt): Monday marked a red-letter day on the annals of Polavaram project, billed as lifeline of Andhra Pradesh. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who has been tenaciously pushing the project forward despite heavy odds, launched works for erection of the first radial gate - the 41st one - at the project site at a high-visibility programme.

Naidu said that project works would be completed by May 2019 and water would be released to canals under gravity by December 2019. “All crest gates would be erected by May. “Each gate weighs 300 tonnes and that coffer dam works are being completed on a war footing,” he said.

Polavaram happens to be one project on which Chandrababu Naidu has pinned high hopes that it would help him win the Assembly elections next year. Though funds flow from the Centre has been in fits and starts, he had been spending precious resources of the state on the project and is seeking reimbursement from the Centre as it is a national project.

After launching the works, the Chief Minister made an appeal to his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik not to derail the project as any issues relating to submergence could be sorted out across the table. He was sore that Odisha was not conducting public hearing with an intention to stall the project. The states that are opposing the projects would stand to gain from it, he pointed out.

Naidu said: "Odisha would get 5 tmc ft water from backwaters of Polavaram project, apart from package for rehabilitation and resettlement of the oustees." “Each radial gate has a total of eight sub-segments. After attaching all these eight parts only the process of erecting one radial gate will be completed. It takes 60 days for erection of one complete radial-gate,” P Sudhakar Rao, Executive Engineer, Polavaram project, told this correspondent on the sidelines of the function.

To support each radial gate, there will be eight girders which include four horizontal and four arm girders. The eight parts of radial gate will be attached to these girders. In addition to that, each gate will have two hydraulic cylinders. Each cylinder has a capacity to lift 250 tonnes. They are being fitted with prestressed technology.

According to Sudhakar Rao, the spill way of Polavaram project consists of 48 radial gates each 16mX20m size and designed to pass a maximum designed flood of 36 lakh cusecs and maximum of 50 lakh cusecs. The fabrication work of radial gates, including skin plates, 384 arm girders, 192 horizontal girders, 83 trunnions out of 96, trunnion brackets 96 have already been fabricated at gates yard, at Polavaram project. Balance trunnions, pins, bonnets and gates for river sluice gates are under fabrication stage.

The primary embedded parts for sill beam, radial gates and stop log gates have been placed in 21 blocks of spillway and all 10 bell mouth portions with bottom liners, side liners with top liners have been placed and erected for the river sluices of spillway. For fabricating all these 48 gates, around 18,000 tonnes of steel is required. So far, more than 11,000 tonnes of steel has been purchased, the executive engineer said.