Exactly about 24 km away from Vemulaghat, the epicentre for agitation for compensation under Land Acquisition Act – 2013 is located Tukkapur village of Toguta mandal. Heavy vehicles are seen carrying huge boulders and loads of gravel from the hillocks nearby, to the construction site of Mallannasagar reservoir. Hundreds of workers wearing safety caps and radium-coated vests indicate that even during night the place is abuzz with activity.
The proposed Mallannasagar reservoir with a storage capacity of 50 tmcft water, which would be lifted from the preceding Ranganaiksagar reservoir, is being taken up as package 11 under Kaleswaram project. Water for Ranganaiksagar will be drawn from Anantagiri.
It may take longer to complete the construction, but efforts are on full swing, with Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao personally monitoring the progress on a day-to-day basis through WhatsApp, whenever it is not possible to monitor the work personally.
Though the reservoir was initially planned at Turkapally with 1.5 tmcft capacity, later it was shifted to the present location with an increased capacity of 50 tmcft. As a reason, even the tunnel length was also extended from the actually planned 9,180 metres to 16,180 metres. The full reservoir level will be 557 metres, which is expected to provide irrigation for about 1.25 lakh acres.
Here, the pump house will be at the size of 21 metres x 190 metres with eight motors and eight pumps, each with a capacity of pumping 1094 cusecs of water.
Water for Mallannasagar will be taken from Ranganaiksagar, another reservoir coming up near Siddipet with a storage capacity of 3 tmcft.
The full reservoir level will be 397 metres. Here the tunnel length is 7,651 metres. Four pumps with four motors each with a capacity of 3,001 cusecs will be set up here. From here, the water will be lifted to the proposed Kondapochamma reservoir which will be constructed to store about 15 tmcft of water.
“We are gearing up to meet the deadline and give water as early as possible. We are hopeful that we can cross all hurdles and complete the works in time as decided by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao,” Mr. Harish Rao told The Hindu.
Biggest surge pool
The biggest circular surge pool in Asia will come up at Tippapur in Illantakunta mandal in Siricilla district as part of 10th package in Kaleswaram project.
“This is the vertical surge shaft with four draft tubes, four pumps and four delivery mains. This will be useful to maintain water flow pressure, tunnel safety and pump house safety,” said Mr. Anand, Executive Engineer, Irrigation.