Four days before its scheduled inauguration by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on September 14, the Kondaveetivagu Lift Irrigation (LI) scheme at Sitanagaram was put on trial-run on Sunday morning.
The project was built at a cost of approximately ₹225 crore and it is mainly intended to prevent the flooding of a vast area in the capital region by the ferocious stream that originates in the Kondaveedu hill range, by pumping the excess water into the Krishna western main canal.
According to an official release, a breach was created in the Kondaveetivagu and the backwater pumped into the river Krishna by lifting the gates of the Undavalli regulator as part of the experimental run under the supervision of the officials of the Water Resources Department and the Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), which executed the project.
The Kondaveetivagu LI scheme is a part of the Capital Region Development Authority flood mitigation plan as the flood water from the stream inundates crops in nearly 14,000 acres and also throws road traffic between the temple town of Amaravathi and Guntur out of gear.
Heavy inflows into the stream have been wreaking havoc in Tadikonda, Medikonduru, Mangalagiri and Tadepalli mandals for a long time.
The construction of the LI scheme began in January 2017 and is designed to pump 5,000 cusecs of water into the Krishna river using 16 motors.