Safety wall construction still on cards

Kurnool : Construction of flood safety wall, which was designed about 15 years ago, is still on the cards. Officials from Irrigation, Kurnool Municipal and Revenue departments have designed and sent the proposals to the then government for the construction of flood protection wall to prevent the town flooding from the waters of Tungabhadra and Hundri rivers in 2007.

During every rainy season, Kurnool town residents will live in fear due to floods. Recalling the nightmarish experience 15 years ago, Kurnool town people demand construction of a safety protection wall from floods that will submerge localities. The assurance given to take up the project on war footing, is yet to materialise.

Following the request of town people, government officials have proposed to construct the wall a number of times but nothing was finalised due to the alleged involvement of political leaders demanding to finalize their percentages.

The three rivers, Krishna, Tungabhadra and Hundri have received heavy inflows due to incessant rains in the catchment area that resulted to flooding Kurnool town in October 2009. All these three rivers merge in and around Kurnool town. Tungabhadra and Hundri rivers join together on town outskirts and flows further downstream till it joins Krishna river.

In 2009, Srisailam Dam could not handle heavy inflow from these three rivers, as a result back waters submerged Kurnool in October same year. Srisailam Dam has withheld the heaviest inflows it had experienced of about 2.5 million cusecs since its construction in 1981.

According to an official source from Kurnool Municipal Corporation (KMC), maximum flood level of 284 meter above sea level was reached on 2 October, 2009. The city’s contour map identifies the banks of Tungabhadra river at 271 meters, so the area between 271 and 284 meters contour lines has been marked as the inundated area and is divided into three categories of submergence like high, moderate and low.

As per these calculations, the officials have prepared a detailed report for the construction of protection wall named as ‘Flood Safety Wall’ with an estimated cost of Rs 244 crore in 2009 (based on the proposals of 2007 floods, estimated to Rs 150 crore), a source from irrigation department said. The source also stated that the then estimated cost of Rs 244 crore would go up by four to five times now.