Grouting works at Kandaleru

194
Grouting works at Kandaleru
Grouting works of Kandaleru Reservoir cutoff wall upto a 
depth of 75.00 m using casing pipes and pressure of cement 
to arrest the piping action in the Earthen Bund. 133 drill holes 
were driven in hard rock and grouted with cement.
Sai Ganga Approach Channel 
The work involves widening of deep cut portion of the mouth 
of Kandaleru Reservoir upto Head Regulator for a length of 
700m out of 3200m. The existing canal having a deep cut 
of 20 – 24 m in ¼: 1 slope was getting eroded and caving 
into the canal during monsoon. Since the soil strata were a 
combination of gravelly earth, shales, sheet rock, soft
disintegrated rock, hard rock etc, the soil at certain areas 
when in contact with water, softened and dissolved, causing 
erosion of the bunds.
To overcome such isses, the canal was widened to 1.5:1 
slopes and protected with weld mesh reinforced cement 
concrete (1: 3: 6), 70 mm thick by guniting method. The 
entire soil strata were bolted with anchor rods of 20 mm 
dia, 1.5 m depth. Apart from easing of slopes, the entire top 
portion of the bund was to be protected as otherwise the 
entire area would be submerged when the reservoir becomes 
full. Major quantities of work involved were:
Excavation in all types of soil : 2,00,000 cu.m
Hard rock : 38,000 cu.m
Guniting : 48,000 sq.m
Head Regulators
Similar work as in Approach Channel was carried out in Sai 
Ganga Canal chainage 0.2 – 0.6 km due to the nature of the 
soil strata and also to keep the canal in straight line to
avoid the impact load of water when the Regulators are 
opened. Major works involved were:
Excavation in all types of soil : 60,000 cu.m
Hard rock : 40,000 cu.m
Guniting : 8,500 sq.m

Concrete Lining
Due to heavy leakage, erosion and breaches at several 
places, only 3 TMC out of designed 10 TMC reached the 
destination (Poondi Reservoir) from Kandaleru Dam. 65 km 
of concrete lining was taken up in different stretches over a 
length 152 km. 
Cement concrete lining of 100mm thick, M15 grade PP 
Cement was used.   To arrest seepage / leakage and also 
to increase velocity of flow, canal pavers (self-spreading / 
compacting & frictionless smooth finishing) was used for 
concreting the bed and side slopes. Guniting with weld mesh 
reinforcement was also done in the portion of hard rock.
Random rubble masonry and rough stone revetment works 
were carried out at vulnerable reaches where heavy erosions 
and breaches occurred. Cement concrete lining was done 
in canal of bed width varying from 5.5m to 29.0m and slope 
length varying from 8m to 14m. Major quantity of works 
involved were:
Earth work in excavation : 8,00,000 cu.m
Filling with Gravel : 5,00,000 cu.m
Lining : 1,75,000 cu.m
Guniting : 1,70,000 sq.m
Left:___Gabion_and_stone_revetment__works_done_at_the_Kandaleru_Dam.__Bottom:___Close-up_view_of_the'>Left:
 Gabion and stone revetment 
works done at the Kandaleru Dam.  
Bottom:
  Close-up view of the 
revetment work.

196
Escapes and Regulators
Three numbers of Escape and Regulators were constructed 
at three different locations across the Sai Ganga Canal 
involving 14,290 cu.m. of concrete, 19 nos of Gate (210 MT) 
and embedments of 70 MT to (1) regulate the surplus waters 
during floods; (2) to safeguard the earthen canal bunds 
from breaches; (3) to take up repairs / maintenance in the 
canal; (4) and above all to regulate the flow of water into the 
nearby nallas during emergencies/surplus floods through the 
escapes.
Miscellaneous Improvements
Flume: During monsoons, the soil on the slopes is getting 
eroded and choked in the flume and canal portion. The 
scope involved widening of the slopes in deep cut portion, 
protecting the sides with stone masonry and provision of 
chute drains.
In the canal for about 1.00 km at the flume portion the 
deposited silt was saturated with subsoil water upto  
1.50 m depth. Removal of the silt and slush was a difficult 
task where canal bed was 15m deep from the top of bund. 
The soil at this location was very hard but when it came in 
contact with water it softened and became loamy slush. 
Wellpoint dewatering system was deployed to overcome 
the difficulty in excavation to the designed bed level. Major 
quantity of works involved were:
Easening of slopes & excavation in bed : 30000 cu.m
Stone masonry : 7500 cu.m
Well point dewatering : 120000 HP Hrs
Revetment in Canal
The canal passes through some local tanks and lakes. The 
flooded water during monsoons enter the canal at lower 
levels, causing damage / breach in the bunds and leading 
to loss of water during summer when water is let into the 
canal from Kandaleru to Poondi through the weak bunds. 
To prevent this, vulnerable reaches were identified and 
protection works carried out in the form of stone masonry, 
rough stone revetment, grouting with cement

concrete (1:2:4) and guniting.  Major 
quantity of works involved were:
Stone masonry - 5,000 cu.m
Rough stone revetment - 20,000 cu.m
Inlets & Chute Drains
The water during rainy days from the hills 
and catchment areas was entering the 
canal from the bund top there by eroding 
the bunds - causing breaches and 
deposits of silt on the bed. To prevent 
this, vulnerable points were identified 
along the canal passing through hillocks. 
Cement concrete inlet structures and 
chute drains were constructed through 
catch drains letting the rainwater into the 
canal.
Improvements in Flood Flow Canal
Surplus water from Somasila Reservoir 
flows to Kandaleru Reservoir through 
open channel. Certain vulnerable 
stretches of the Somasila–Kandaleru 
Flood Flow Canal were to be protected 
from heavy erosion and deposition of silt 
by cement lining, guniting, stone
masonry and rough stone revetment on 
the high embankment Major quantity of 
works involved were:
Lining - 10,500 cu.m
Guniting - 10,000 sq.m
Stone masonry - 2,000 cu.m
Rough stone revetment - 10,000 cu.m
68456 tons of cement required for the 
project was issued free by Sri Sathya Sai 
Central Trust.
Special Features of the Project
•  Usage of polypropylene sheet (geo-
textile) as filter media under dam 
revetment
•  Usage of gabions (as renomatress) for
revetment / panel wall
•  Usage of high density polyethylene
sheets as water tight membrane un-
der cement concrete lining
•  Grouting of dam cutoff wall for a
depth of 75.00 m
•  Guniting works with weldmesh rein-
forcement and rock bolting
•  Pressure relief valves using porous
concrete cylinders (plugs), perforated 
HDPE pipes surrounded with polypro-
pylene sheet.
Left:
 Gates and a minor-bridge with 
ornamental works in the Sai Gana Water 
Supply Project, which provides drinking 
water to Chennai City. 
Bottom:
 Escape 
regulators at the canal.

198
The Telugu Ganga project is a water supply scheme 
implemented to provide drinking water to Chennai in Tamil 
Nadu. It is also known as the Krishna Water Supply Project, 
since the source of the water is the Krishna River in Andhra 
Pradesh. For this, water is drawn from the Srisailam first 
and sent to Kandaleru reservoir and then diverted towards 
Chennai through a series of inter-linked canals, over a 
distance of about 200 km, before it reaches the Poondi 
reservoir near Chennai. The main checkpoints en route 
include the Somasila reservoir, the Kandaleru reservoir, 
the ‘Zero Point’ near Uthukkottai where the water enters 
Tamil Nadu territory and reaches its destination, the Poondi 
reservoir, also known as Satyamurthy Sagar. From Poondi, 
water is distributed through a system of link-canals to 
other storage reservoirs located at Red Hills, Sholavaram, 
Chembarambakkam and the treatment plant at Kilpauk.
This project was approved in 1977 after an agreement was 
reached between Tamil Nadu and the riparian states of 
Krishna River: Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.  
According to the agreement, each of the three riparian states 
was to contribute 5 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) of water 
annually, for a total supply of 15 tmc. This works out to 12 
tmc after accounting for seepage and evaporation losses.
The water initially supplied by the canal was disappointing, 
delivering less than 0.5  tmc as the earth embankment 
along the slopes of the canal collapsed in to the canal 
restricting water flow. In 2002,Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai 
Baba announced a great scheme of restoration and lining 
of the canal to reduce the seepage losses and wastage by 
entrusting the works to L&T.  
Water to Chennai

With an extensive rebuilding of the canal and several 
reservoirs, the project was completedin a record time of 16 
months by L&T in 2004, when Poondi reservoir received the 
full quantity of Krishna water for the first time. The supply 
of water to Chennai City in 2006 was 3.7  tmc.The Andhra 
Pradesh Government, in appreciation and gratitude to 
Bhagawan rechristened the Kandaleru-Poondi Canal from 
Telugu Ganga to Sri Sathya Sai Ganga Canal.  
The long-suffering residents of Chennai had finally found 
succour. The Lord had come to their rescue unasked, 
and showered His bountiful blessings on them. During 
Bhagawan’s visit to Chennai in January 2007, a grand 
meeting was organized by the Chennai Citizens’ Conclave 
in order to express their gratitude to Bhagawan for His 
munificent gift of water to Chennai through the Sri Sathya 
Sai Ganga Canal. The meeting held on 21st January, 2007 at 
Nehru Stadium, Chennai which was packed with people.
Apart from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, this grand 
function was attended by the glitterati from Indian political 
leadership including His Excellency the Governor of Tamil 
Nadu, Mr. Surjit Singh Barnala, Hon’ble Chief Minister of 
Tamil Nadu,  Mr. Karunanidhi, His Excellency the Governor 
of Maharashtra, Mr. S.M.Krishna, Hon’ble Chief Minister of 
Maharashtra,  Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Hon’ble Chief Minister 
of Karnataka, Mr. H.D.Kumaraswamy, Hon’ble Union Minster 
for Home Affairs, Mr. Shivraj Patil, Hon’ble Union Minister for 
Railways, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Hon’ble Union Minister for 
Communications & IT,  Mr. Dayanidhi Maran,  besides Tamil 
Nadu State Ministers like Mr. M.K. Stalin, Mr. Durai Murugan,  
Andhra Pradesh State Ministers including Mrs. Geetha Reddy, 
Mr. Ponnala Lakshmayya and Mr. Muniyappa.
Top left:
 ‘Zero-point’ at Poondi reservoir and the 
state of the canal before the commencement of 
rebuilding and expansion works.   
Left bottom:
  Gabion and random rubble masonry 
works in progress. 
Bottom:
  Completed view of the 
canal, showing the vast and neat arrangement of 
revetment works.

200
The upland and backward areas of 
East & West Godavari Districts, which 
are mainly inhabitated  by tribals and 
economically weaker sections of people, 
depend mostly on borewells and river 
streams for their drinking water needs.  
Even though these people live by the 
side of Godavari, they are deprived of 
potable water.  Moreover, the borewell 
water contains rich iron content and the 
stream / river water is unsafe for drinking 
due to its high bacterial content.  Due to 
excessive exploitation of ground water, 
the borewells also dry up in summer 
months, making people trudge long 
distances for carrying water.
Thus, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust under 
the benign guidance of Bhagavan Sri 
Sathya Sai Baba, decided to provide 
pure drinking water from assured 
sources of Godavari river and its 
tributaries to the water starved people in 
East and West Godavari Dirstricts.
East Godavari District
For this purpose, two main sources were 
selected for supplying the raw water. 
One is river Godavari and the second 
‘Pamuleru’, a tributary of Godavari, 
both of which flows throughout the 
year. Accordingly, this caters to about 
220 habitations covering a population 
of about 2.30 lakhs, with provision 
for expansion for another 1.00 lakh 
population.
Two Schemes 
In the East Godavari District two 
schemes were under implementation.  
Under Scheme – I, ECC constructed 
a 6m dia 25m high intake well at 
Purushottampatnam on the bank of 
river Godavari and it is installed with 
vertical turbine pumps, which supplies 
raw water to the treatment plant (at 
Purushottampatnam located at a 
distance of 0.5 km through 400mm dia 
pipelines.
Top: 
Intake well at Godavari river, 
that serves as the source for the 
drinking water supply project.  
Right: 
 Inside the pumphouse.  
Extreme right:  
Pipeline network.
Godavari Drinking Water Supply Project...
Yet another saga from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

202
This 10.5 mld treatment plant employs 
rapid sand filtration method for 
purification.  From here the clear water 
is pumped to a GLBR of 10.00 lakh 
litre capacity situated on the top of a 
hill, from where the water is supplied to 
the villages, by gravity. Sumps, OHSRs 
and GLSRs are provided in between for 
storage and distribution. Intermediate 
pumping is also provided wherever 
‘peaks’ are to be crossed, as the line 
passes hills and forests. This project 
provides drinking water to about 90 
villages covering a total population of 2.5 
Lakhs.
Scheme-II  
In the second scheme an intake well was 
constructed across river ‘Pamuleru’, a 
tributary of River Godavari, from where 
raw water is pumped to the treatment 
plant situated at Kuttravada, located at a 
distance of 1.4 km.
Here again the 3.5 MLD capacity 
treatment plant employs rapid sand 
filtration method and after treatment, the 
water is supplied to about 150 villages.
Various pipes like AC, HDPE, PVC, GRP, 
MS etc., are used in the project totaling 
a length of 405 km. On the occasion of 
Swamy’s 80th birthday on 23.11.2005, it 
was commissioned. 
West Godavari District
Sri Sathya Sai Water Supply project in 
the West Godavari District caters to 220 
habitations covering a population of 
about 4.7 lakhs.
In this district the source for the intake 
well is located at Polavaram village on 
the bank of river Godavari.  Here an 
intake well of 6m dia and 28m high is 
built with vertical turbine pumps.  The 
raw water from Polavaram is pumped to 
the ‘Hukumpeta’ water treatment plant 
located at a distance of 7.5km 
The Hukumpeta water treatment plant 
has a capacity of 21.75 MLD and it also 
employs rapid sand filtration method 
for purification.  The purified water is 
pumped to a GLSR situated on a hillock 
nearby and from here water is distributed 
to various villages.  Intermediate 
pumping is also done wherever required.
Various piping materials like GRP, MS, 
DI, AC, HDPE and PVC are used for 
transmission of water and the total 
length of pipeline is laid around 430 km
The entire work was was completed and 
commissioned in March 2006.
202

What is the 
unmistakable mark of a 

Yüklə 8,32 Mb.