Boost to inland waterways

Eluru: The Krishna - Godavari canal system is being spruced up to enable inland waterways project to take off.
A meeting was convened by West Godavari district collector Bhaskar Katamneni with officials from the inland waterways, revenue and irrigation departments here on Saturday to prepare the canals for movement of cargo vessels. The project is proposed to link inland waterways from Buckingham canal to Kakinada.
Bhaskar aksed M Venkateswara Rao of the inland waterways project to prepare an action plan for widening and deepening of the two canals. He also directed the revenue department to take up a survey over the extent of land required for the canal extension.
Bhaskar wanted the experts to execute the works relating to widening and deepening of canals in such a manner that it would not affect the flow of water by gravity. Care also has to be taken to prevent water flow into the farm fields under the ayacuts. The works should be executed only during the period of canals closure during summer before the onset of kharif operations so that the works would not hit agricultural operations.
He informed that the state government has decided to modernise the canal system from Kakinada to Tada in Nellore district as part of the inland waterways project within the stipulated time. He emphasised upon the need to complete the project works in the district within one year which included beautification of canal bunds by removing encroachments.
Bhaskar proposed to build special platforms at the designated points on the canal bunds for loading and unloading of cargo from ships. According to the collector, the Godavari canal on a stretch of 70 km from Settipeta to Eluru will be 40 m wide and 7 m deep. The water should flow continuously in the canals and in view of this the officials have to take up construction with utmost care, he directed.
The collector said that the cargo ships would have a capacity of 1,000 tonnes. Cargo handling apart, the government has also proposed to utilise waterways for public transport through boats and launches.
Joint collector Pulipati Koteswara Rao, irrigation S E Venkataramana, Settipeta executive engineer Srinivas and others participated in the meeting.