Flood damage may well be a thing of the past! M. Malleswara Rao -File photo: U. Subramanyam

Welcome change: If everything goes well, within two years embankments will stall the fury of rivers.

HYDERABAD: In two years from now, hundreds of villages in nine coastal districts, Srikakulam to Nellore, are likely to remain unaffected by floods, if everything goes well with the ambitious projects taken up to provide/raise embankments to rivers Godavari, Krishna, Vamsadhara, Nagavali and Pennar.

The strengthened embankments will not only prevent river water from flooding the habitations, but also allow inflows into rivers effectively through established routes, like tributaries/streams.

Works under a Rs. 500-crore project, taken up to raise/strengthen the embankments of the Godavari and lay fresh ones wherever needed -- all for a stretch of 530 km on either side of the river in East and West Godavari districts -- have been grounded.

The flood-banks will insulate the areas upstream and downstream of Dowlaiswaram Barrage, especially Konaseema, from the fury of the mighty river. The outflow from the barrage touched 35 lakh cusecs in 1986, the highest in its recorded history.

Similarly, nearly 150-km length of flood-banks in Khammam and Warangal are being raised to permanently protect habitations, especially the temple town of Bhadrachalam, at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

Another Rs 270-crore project has been taken up to renovate the flood-banks on both sides of the Krishna ( over 140 km), starting from Vijayawada to Hamsaladeevi, where the river joins the Bay.

Administrative approval for the project, which will be a boon to villages in Krishna and Guntur districts, is awaited, says M. K. Rahaman, Engineer-in-chief, Irrigation. The highest outflow from the Krishna, in contrast, was 10.5 lakh cusecs (1908).

This project envisages to double-lane the existing road on the embankments from Vijayawada to Puligadda that offers a bewitching sight of the river course to the traveller.

Works have also been grounded under a fourth Rs 300-crore project to refurbish the embankments of the Vamsadhara and Nagavali, that cause havoc in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram. In case of modernising the embankments of the Pennar that flooded areas in Nellore district recently, investigation work is on.