Godavari waters for Vizag by May

With a major water crisis expected to surface in the coming summer for the industrial city of Vizag, officials have stepped up their efforts to complete the Visakhapatnam Industrial Water Supply Project by April end.

The Rs 412 crore JV, being executed by L&T ECC group, is designed to supply 264 million litres per day (MLD) from Godavari river to the Vizag steel factory, Simhadri power project besides the Vizag municipal corporation.

Currently, efforts are being made to test run the pumps erected for the project in the first week of February, the officials at Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) told Business Standard .

Top officials from APIIC, NTPC and Industrial Leasing and Finance Systems Limited (ILFS), the consultants for the project, are camping at Visakhapatnam to oversee the progress of project works.

To expedite the electrical works, the officials of the joint venture Visakhapatnam Industrial Water Supply Company Limited (VIWSCo) have paid Rs 1.60 crore to APTransco towards line charges, the sources said.

"Intake wells and a 6 km pipeline have already been completed. The pipeline for the remaining 23 km stretch is expected to be completed by the second week of February," the sources informed. Authorities have set the target of releasing water from the VIWSP from May, 2004.

The project is designed to use the existing 153-km-long Yeleru Left Bank Canal(YLBC) from Yeleru reservoir to Vizag which supplies water to Vizag Steel Plant and National Thermal Power Corporation.

It is proposed to rehabilitate the YLBC to improve transmission capacity and reduce the present high seepage looses to create 264 MLD. The water supply would be subsequently augmented from Godavari River, 56 km upstream of Yeleru reservoir, to create a capacity of about 600 MlD under phase-2.