The much-touted Pattiseema lift irrigation project that connects the Godavari with the Krishna will be formally commissioned on March 25.
Though the trial run of the project was done last year, it is now officially ready for operation. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will formally launch the lift irrigation scheme aimed at stabilizing the Krishna delta by diverting the flood water from the Godavari into the Krishna River, upstream of Prakasam barrage in Vijayawada.
Incidentally, this is the first time that an irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh is completed ahead of the schedule.
The project was launched on March 29, 2015 and the contractor was told to complete it in 12 months. As per the state government's promise of reward, the contractor, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) will get Rs 262 crore as incentive. Yes, that’s right!
An additional 21% of the project cost is being given as incentive to this company because they did what they were supposed to. Such judicious management of finances will go a long way towards eliminating the fiscal deficit of the State.
Devineni Uma , the great Irrigation Minister of AP says that had the project not been completed on time, it would have resulted in cost-escalation by Rs 300 crore per year.
Naidu intends to reward all contractors in the State henceforth in this manner. Therefore, if Polavaram is completed on schedule, 21% of the project cost in the form of incentives will work out to Rs 7560 crore.
Pattiseema project is designed to move 8,000 cusecs of water per day from the Godavari to the Krishna through a 170km canal. The project will also solve the drinking water problem in the upcoming capital city of Amaravati.
Solving the drinking water problems of a city that does not even exist. And do you know the cost of power to be incurred to operate the 24 pumps at Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme for releasing water into the Polavaram Right Main Canal at the discharge rate of 8,500 cusecs, so as to make the water to join Krishna? It is a whopping Rs 1.53 cr a day! And that is not all.
When the unit wise consumption is taken into consideration the PLIS consumes 2.712 million units a day, which is nearly half the daily power consumption of the entire Vijayawada City, including its industrial units, which stands at 5.5 million units a day.
In other words, for operating the PLIS at full steam for two days it will require as much power as it needs to operate the entire city of Vijayawada a day.
