Pulichintala project nearing completion

Vijayawada: The much-awaited Pulichintala project is becoming a reality and would be ready, if one goes by the promise of the officials, by June 2014 serving the irrigation needs of Krishna delta.

The officials have successfully completed erection of first gate on December 9, 2012 and promise to complete two more gates by end of December.

The project would have biggest gates, next only to Srisailam with 18.5 meters height and 17.5 meters width.

The project would now have 24 gates and the officials express confidence that they would be able to complete erection of all gates by June 2013.

Located at 120 kilometers down the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir, Pulichintala project is aimed at serving the water requirements of Krishna delta spread over Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts.

The project is a storage reservoir with a capacity of 45 TMCs of water from the river and is to supply the same to the Krishna delta.

The project was cleared in November 2005 at a cost of Rs 681.60 crore and the cost had gone up to Rs 1980 crore due to price escalation.

Though the project is scheduled to be completed by June 2013 after sixth extension of the period, the officials are now seeking yet another year of extension to complete the project latest by June 2014.

The Pulichintala Superintendent Engineer, Kshetrabala, told that they have completed the land acquisition for the project in Guntur and Nalgonda districts.

He further said that 13 villages from Nalgonda and 15 villages from Guntur would be submerged in the project water once the project is completed and the people were rehabilitated according to the Relief and Rehabilitation Package of the State government.

The government had identified 13915.74 acres of land in Nalgonda and 14530.60 acres in Guntur district that would get submerged under the project, of which 13908.12 acres in Nalgonda and 12946.50 acres from Guntur district were already acquired.

The remaining 7.67 acres in Nalgonda and 1584.10 acres from Guntur district were to be acquired and it would be completed by the time the civil works are completed at the project.

There are several charges against the contractor for changing the design of the project and bringing down the number of gates from 33 to 24. It is also alleged that the project height was brought down by six meters from the sanctioned 52 meters.

The State government had changed 36 SEs since 2004, which is one of the reasons for the delay in completing the project.