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Veligonda Project-The Dream Project

Veligonda Project has been the dream project for the people of three districts. Prakasam, Nellore and Cuddapah. It has been under surveys for many years, yet no one has taken initiative to build and complete the project. The Veligonda Project plans to draw 43.5 tmc ft of flood waters of the Krishna river from the foreshore of the Srisailam Project and carry it through the 18.9 km-long tunnel to the Nallamalla Sagar Near the town of Markapur. The tunnels are being dug parellelly at a villaged called Kotturu, which lies 12 Kms away from Pedda Dornala Junction and about 42 Kms from the town of Markapur. We recently had a visited to the place where the tunnel working is going on. One of the TBM(Tunnel Boring Machine) has gone through approximately 2 kms into the rocks and hills of Nallamalla and heading towards Srisailam Reservoir. We visited the site on Sunday and therefore no work was going on then. It looked a great project and truly an engineering marvel. We knew from the local workers that forest officials objected to the traditional method of digging tunnel by blasting on the point that it would disturb the tigers. Irrigation officials imported special equipment from Germany to dig the tunnels without blasting although this had doubled the cost of construction. The German TBM has gone through 2 Kms into the hills of Nallamalla. The other tunnel being dug by Robbins, from USA is installed and ready to start it's work on the 25th of June. We could see both the tunnels the first one which is underway and the second one which is ready to go.

The first tunnel which is underway

The Tunnel Boring Machine not only digs the rocks but also fixes cemented casing automatically as it goes through the rocks. The casing consists 7 cement made blocks and are placed simultaneously to the rocks to avoid any falling. The dug part ie., the stones and dust are carried away to the outside by the way of a conveyor belt.

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THE SECOND TUNNEL BORING MACHINE

The radius of the first tunnel is 7 metres, where as the radius of the second Tunnel is 9 metres. It is installed and ready to commence work. It will soon inaugurated by the Minister for Irrigation and is expected to complete it's work by the end of 2011. After both the tunnels are dug the excess water or the flood water will be diverted to the reservoir. The filling up of gaps between the hills at various places is underway and the canals are also being dug in advance. There will be no waiting for the canal work to be completed. The fruits of whole project will be reaching the people at a time. The second Tunnel Boring Machine look different from the first one.

The Gap between hills is under construction, it almost finished. The work was taken by L&T and it is biggest gap being constructed at Gottipadia Village near Markapur Town. If you can get to the top of the dam, you can see hillarious view of the area where the water is to be stored. It is an amazing sight and when the whole area is filled with water, one require more than two eyes to look at the reservoir.