Polavaram project
Polavaram Project, is an underconstruction multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in the West Godavari Districtand East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh. The project has been accorded national project status by the Union Government of India[3][4] and will be the last to be accorded the status.[5] Its reservoir spreads into parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha States also.[6][7]
History
Purpose
National River-Linking Project, which works under the aegis of the Indian Ministry of Water Resources, was designed to overcome the deficit in water in the country.[15] As a part of this plan, surplus water from the Himalayanrivers is to be transferred to the peninsularrivers of India.[16] This exercise, with a combined network of 30 river-links and a total length of 14,900 kilometres (9,300 mi) at an estimated cost of US$120 billion (in 1999), would be the largest ever infrastructure project in the world.[17] In this project's case, the Godavari river basin[18] is considered as a surplus one, while the Krishna River basin is considered to be a deficit one.[19] As of 2008, 644 tmcft of underutilised water from Godavari River flowed into the Bay of Bengal.[20] But as of 2017 over 3000 tmcft are drained unutilised into Bay of Bengal.[21]Based on the estimated water requirements in 2025, the Study recommended that sizeable surplus water was to be transferred from the Godavari River basin to the Krishna River basin.[19]
In July 1941, the first conceptual proposal for the project came from the erstwhile Madras Presidency.[22] Later Diwan Bahadur L. Venkatakrishna Iyer, then chief engineer in the Presidency's irrigation department, made the first survey of the project site and made a definitive proposal for a reservoir at Polavaram. Sri Iyer not only visioned cultivation of 350,000 acres (140,000 ha) over two crop seasons through this project, but also planned for a 40 megawatt hydroelectricplant within the project.[23] The entire project was estimated to cost about ₹6.5 crore. The old final designs[24] of Polavaram dam was planned at full reservoir level (FRL) 208 ft MSL (Mean Sea Level) with 836 tmcft gross storage capacity and 150 MW hydroelectricplant. By 1946–47, the estimated cost rose to ₹129 crore. It was named the "Ramapada Sagar Project" since the backwaters of the reservoir would touch the Lord Rama temple at Bhadrachalam.[25] In the old finalised project design by Dr. K.L. Rao, the right bank canal of Polavaram project was extended to south of Krishna River to serve irrigation needs in old Guntur district by envisaging aqueduct across the Krishna River.[26]
The project presently under construction is scaled down to FRL 150 feet (46 m) MSL. The project cost estimate in 2004 stood at ₹8,261 crore.[27]
In 1980, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh T. Anjaiah laid the foundation stone for the project to fulfill the stipulations of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunalagreement.[28] The project is stalled till YSR Reddy in 2004 the then chief minister of AP took the project to work. YSR got the required permissions for the projects before he died.[29] for polavaram project, Site clearance was obtained from the Centre on 19 September 2005, environmental clearance on 25 October 2005, R & R clearance on 17 April 2007, wildlife sanctuary clearance on 19 Sept 2008, forest clearance on 26 Dec, 2008 and technical advisory committee clearance on 20 January 2009. Progress of polavaram hit road block post YSR death.[30] later, Polavaram project is declared as national project through AP special re-org act in 2014.[31] It was made a “national project” by AP reorganisation act 2014.
Naidu has pushed the project to its last leg — concrete work of the dam, the main component of the project, is under way.[32]After 14 years of initiating the project works, the first major mile stone of completing the 1400 meters long diaphragm wall was achieved in June, 2018 which will lead to the project usage for water supply in incremental stages with the further progress of other works.[33] The project senior officials are confirming that they are confident of supplying water by gravity to the canals from the onset of 2019 monsoon.[34]
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