Vijayawada: Following last year’s devastating floods from the Budameru rivulet, which crippled Vijayawada city for over a month, the state govt has decided to implement permanent measures to protect the city from future flooding.
Authorities are planning to increase the Budameru flood flow capacity to 40,000 cusecs besides widening the capacity of Budameru diversion channel to 37,500 cusecs, from the proposed 17,500 cusecs.
A high-level committee comprising water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu and municipal administration minister P Narayana held a review with the senior officials here. Irrigation special chief secretary G Saiprasad, municipal administration secretary Kannababu, CRDA commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Vijayawada municipal commissioner Dhyanachandra, irrigation ENC Venkateswara Rao and senior officials from revenue, town planning and survey departments attended the review.
The three-hour long meeting resolved to meet again on Jan 18 to finalise the recommendations. A comprehensive report will be submitted to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu after the next review meeting.
Speaking to the media, water resources minister Ramanaidu said that the Vijayawada city experienced unprecedented floods last September when the Budameru rivulet swelled with over 50,000 cusecs. He said that Budameru witnessed three breaches causing massive damage to the city and added that more than two lakh people were stranded in the flood waters for about three weeks due to the massive floods.
“The previous YSRCP regime’s gross negligence in taking up flood diversion channel works led to the disastrous floods in the city,” said Ramanaidu. He said that the YSRCP govt deliberately ignored the works as it was initiated during the previous TDP regime. He said that they could save several lives during the floods as chief minister Chandrababu Naidu himself stayed back in the city to oversee relief measures.
He said that they would prepare an action plan in such a way that Vijayawada city would never witness such floods in the future. He said that the chief minister had already directed to complete the pending works to increase the capacity of Budameru diversion canal from 17,500 cusecs to 37,500 cusecs. “The authorities have been instructed to prepare proposals to increase the capacity of the old channel from Velagaleru regulator to Kolleru. We had actually called tenders to widen the canal with Rs 464 crore and 80 percent works were completed before TDP demitted office in 2019. However, YSRCP govt abruptly stopped the work causing irreparable loss to Vijayawada,” said Ramanaidu.
Municipal administration minister Narayana said that people in 34 wards of Vijayawada city struggled for life due to Budameru floods. He said that YSRCP had even politicised the distribution of drinking water bottles during floods and added that they would seek Union govt’s support to take up flood mitigation works in Vijayawada city.
Authorities are planning to increase the Budameru flood flow capacity to 40,000 cusecs besides widening the capacity of Budameru diversion channel to 37,500 cusecs, from the proposed 17,500 cusecs.
A high-level committee comprising water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu and municipal administration minister P Narayana held a review with the senior officials here. Irrigation special chief secretary G Saiprasad, municipal administration secretary Kannababu, CRDA commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Vijayawada municipal commissioner Dhyanachandra, irrigation ENC Venkateswara Rao and senior officials from revenue, town planning and survey departments attended the review.
The three-hour long meeting resolved to meet again on Jan 18 to finalise the recommendations. A comprehensive report will be submitted to chief minister Chandrababu Naidu after the next review meeting.
Speaking to the media, water resources minister Ramanaidu said that the Vijayawada city experienced unprecedented floods last September when the Budameru rivulet swelled with over 50,000 cusecs. He said that Budameru witnessed three breaches causing massive damage to the city and added that more than two lakh people were stranded in the flood waters for about three weeks due to the massive floods.
“The previous YSRCP regime’s gross negligence in taking up flood diversion channel works led to the disastrous floods in the city,” said Ramanaidu. He said that the YSRCP govt deliberately ignored the works as it was initiated during the previous TDP regime. He said that they could save several lives during the floods as chief minister Chandrababu Naidu himself stayed back in the city to oversee relief measures.
He said that they would prepare an action plan in such a way that Vijayawada city would never witness such floods in the future. He said that the chief minister had already directed to complete the pending works to increase the capacity of Budameru diversion canal from 17,500 cusecs to 37,500 cusecs. “The authorities have been instructed to prepare proposals to increase the capacity of the old channel from Velagaleru regulator to Kolleru. We had actually called tenders to widen the canal with Rs 464 crore and 80 percent works were completed before TDP demitted office in 2019. However, YSRCP govt abruptly stopped the work causing irreparable loss to Vijayawada,” said Ramanaidu.
Municipal administration minister Narayana said that people in 34 wards of Vijayawada city struggled for life due to Budameru floods. He said that YSRCP had even politicised the distribution of drinking water bottles during floods and added that they would seek Union govt’s support to take up flood mitigation works in Vijayawada city.
