Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd (Chinta VisveswaraRao, Chairman) set a Guinness World Record on Monday morning, as it poured 32,100 cubic metre concrete in the spillway works at the Polavaram Irrigation Project here. The feat was accomplished in 24 hours, beginning with 8 am on Sunday.
According Guinness Book Adjudicator Rishi Nath, 24 independent observers supervised the record-breaking event apart from three drones.
Chinta Sridhar, MD, NECL said that the company had broken the earlier record held by a Dubai-based company, which was 21,500 cubic mtrs in a day.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu also congratulated the MD on the occasion.
The Project
The Polavaram project is a mega infrastructure landmark with a total of 48 gates, each of 20x16 mtrs dimensions. . It consists of a spillway, a concrete block, two temporary coffer dams, an earth-cum-rock fill dam along with two canals .
"This is a life line for Andhra Pradesh as two canals will provide both irrigation and drinking water for the the state," said Sridhar.
It would irrigate 42 lakh acres ayacut in two phases. The 174 km long right canal will provide immediate water to Vijayawada and pass through other canals such as Erra Kaluva. The upper stream of Krishna will be diverted to Penna to provide water to Rayalaseema.
The left canal will provide water to East Godavari and Visakhapatnam. This could begin by some time by June in a phased manner.
NECL is building almost entire project except for gates and few other works at a contract value of Rs 3,400 crore.
The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs 50,000 crore. It is expected to be completed by April 2020.