INDIRA SAGAR POLAVARAM

National River-Linking Project, which works under the aegis of the Indian Ministry of Water Resources, was designed to overcome the deficit in water in the country.

PURPOSE

This exercise, with a combined network of 30 river-links and a total length of 14,900 kilometres (9,300 mi) at an estimated cost of US$120 billion (in 1999), would be the largest ever infrastructure project in the world

Based on the estimated water requirements in 2025, the Study recommended that sizable surplus water was to be transferred from the Godavari River basin to the Krishna River basin.

PROJECT VIEW

In 1980, then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh T. Anjaiah laid the foundation stone for the project.

However the project stayed idle until 2004 when the Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy-led government

came to power In 2004, the Government of Andhra

Pradesh sanctioned 1,320 crore (US$230 million) for the project. Soon after, tenders were issued for the commensurate worth of services for the right canal of the project. For the left canal, another 1,353 crore were sanctioned by the state government.

HISTORY

As of 2004, the proposed project would hold 75.2 tmcft thereby enabling irrigation of an additional 232,000 acre in Krishna, West Godavari, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh.

HOW IS IT HELPFUL?

The project would constitute an earth-cum-rock fill dam of 2,310 metres (7,580 ft) length, spillway of 907 metres (2,976 ft) with 44 vents to enable discharge of 3,600,000 cu ft/s (100,000 m3/s) of water. To its left, 12 water turbines, each having 80 megawatt capacity, were to be installed. The right canal (173 kilometres (107 mi) long) discharges 17,500 cu ft/s (500 m3/s) and left canal (182 kilometres (113 mi) long) discharges 17,500 cu ft/s (500 m3/s) of water.

HOW IS IT HELPFUL?

The proposed project would displace 276 villages and 44,574 families spread across three districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Human rights activists came out against the project because of these reasons.

CONTROVERSIES

the project not only will displace several thousands of families, it will also submerge several archeological sites, coal deposits, a wildlife sanctuary and several hectares of farm land.

Godavari experienced high flood in August 2006, submerging about 370 villages for days in Andhra Pradesh

The Polavaram project will harness the waters of the river Godavari by building a 45.72- metre-high, 2.32-km-long dam

The earth and rock-filled dam will have a storage capacity of 551 million cubic metre (mcm) and power generation capacity of 960 MW. The initial proposal was for a storage reservoir with a capacity of 424.8 mcm and full reservoir level (FRL) of 45.72 metre

NEW DESIGN

The water from the dam reservoir will irrigate 291,778 ha of agricultural land in the districts of Krishna, East and West Godavari and Visakhaptnam through two major canals

BUT NEARLY 70% OF GODAVARI RIVER WATER i.e 3000 TMCS WATER WAS WASTLY FLOWS INTO BAY OF BENGAL NEAR ANTARVEDI

NEW SURVEYS ARE GOING ON TO COMPLETE THIS PROJECT AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE

SO MANY PEOPLE ARE STRUGGLING FOR THIS PROJECT

HOPE THAT GOVERNMENT WILL COMPLETE IT SOON