MEIL sets milestone with engineering marvel KLIS

HYDERABAD: Infrastructure major Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) has once again proven its mettle in engineering and management by completing the critical works of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) with the operationalisation of 3,767 MW pumping capacity and the inauguration of Kondapochamma Sagar Project on Friday. 

While completing a majority of pumping stations for this ambitious project in the shortest time of four years, MEIL supported the State government’s effort to make Telangana the country’s “food bowl”. 
A total of 22 pumping stations with 96 machines, having a total capacity of 4,680 MW have been constructed under KLIS, which is a first of its kind in the world.

Largest lift irrigation project
Out of them, MEIL built 15 pumping stations with 89 machines having a capacity of 3,840 MW. The notable thing is that all these pumping houses have been operationalised and are pumping water.
With the release of water from Kondapochamma, MEIL also secured the distinction of lifting water to a height of 618 feet that is a record in the history of world’s irrigation sector. The Colorado lift irrigation project in the US and the Great Manmade river in Libya are considered the biggest lift irrigation projects in the world.

The Handri- Neeva Project in Andhra Pradesh surpassed them later. Given the size and capacity to serve in multiple ways, KLIS has now become the world’s largest lift irrigation project. Nowhere in the world, has such a gigantic project has been completed in just four years.  MEIL completed the construction of 15 pumping stations with a total capacity of 3,840 MW that could lift 2 tmcft of water per day. While nine pumping stations with a total capacity of 3,767 MW are already operationalised, four more with a capacity of 35.4 MW are ready for operation, and two pumping stations with a capacity of 41 MW are still in the completion stage.  

Largest underground  pump house
Another achievement by the MEIL is the construction of Gayathri (Package-8) pump house, the largest underground pump house in the world. The underground surge pool in this pump house is taller than Eiffel Tower. It is being hailed now as an engineering marvel. “Not only in terms of each machine but even in terms of total capacity, it is the world’s largest pump house. One can imagine the size of this pump house constructed 470 feet below the ground with 327 metre of length, 25 metre of width, and 65 metre of height. While the Kaleshwaram project requires 4,680 MW of total capacity to lift 2 tmcft of water per day, MEIL itself established 89 machines with a total capacity of 3,840 MW, that indicates the role being played by the company for this prestigious project of Telangana”, MEIL Director B Srinivas Reddy said.

When barren lands get water
“For MEIL, it is an opportunity to take part in this prestigious project of the Telangana government. We feel it as a lifetime honour for our company to be able to contribute to such a noble mission of fulfilling the age-old dream of TS people in terms of utilising Godavari water and bringing hitherto barren lands into irrigation. We also feel proud to have completed this project in time, using sophisticated technology by associating with the world’s best engineering companies. We could complete this project in the shortest time only because of the determination and regular monitoring of Telangana CM as he directly involved and provided guidance to interact with officials on every aspect of the project and encouraged us a lot,” Srinivas Reddy said. The government recently decided to further increase the pumping capacity of Kaleshwaram Project by one more tmcft per day.  This work of installing an additional 600 MW capacity has also been assigned to MEIL.