Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao is scheduled to lay the foundation stone to the much- publicised Sunkishala project near Nagarjunasagar on Saturday.
Sunkishala has been envisaged as a common raw water drawal intake project in order to have permanent and independent drawal arrangements for the three phases of the existing Krishna Drinking Water Supply project scheme, and for the proposed additional 20 tmc ft with Krishna river as a source, a statement from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board said.
With this project, it will be possible to draw water from even below the Minimum Drawal Down Level (MDDL) to avoid interruptions and emergency pumping during summer.
The present Krishna Drinking Water Supply Project is drawing from the Aliminati Madhava Reddy Project canal to supply 270 million gallons per day (MGD) in three phases, which is only a temporary arrangement through the canal meant for irrigation. This arrangement is causing emergency pumping during every summer and resulting in interruptions in water supply to the city.
In case the water level in Nagarjunasagar reservoir falls below 510 feet, water needs to be pumped from the reservoir into the approach channel of the AMRP lift irrigation project. For such problems to be prevented, there is a need for independent intake structure, the statement said.
Sunkishala project will enable the Krishna supply to function with 100 per cent dependability, since the dead storage in the Nagarjunasagar reservoir can be drawn in case of consecutive drought periods with meagre or no inflows.
The project involves construction of a deep underground shaft, three intake tunnels at different levels for raw water drawls, pumps and motors, trash gates and sluice gates, air vessels, transformers, electrical sub-station, dedicated HT feeder mains, pumping mains, and access and escape tunnels apart from staff quarters.
Already work is in progress towards completion by June next year, the statement said.
