Krishna water clears Veligonda’s Sunday trial before the formal opening

Officials completed a successful trial run of the first phase of the Poola Subbaiah Veligonda project in Prakasam district on Sunday, August 30, opening the gates at Kollam Vagu and releasing Krishna water into the tunnel system ahead of the project’s scheduled formal inauguration.

During the test, engineers monitored the operation of the gates, the movement of water through the tunnel and the transfer process. The released water reached the Gantavanipalli cross-head regulator. As a precaution, a siren was sounded near the regulator to alert people in the surrounding area before the flow arrived.

The Sunday trial is an engineering milestone rather than the final measure of what the project delivers. A successful water passage confirms that key elements of the first-phase conveyance system can operate under test conditions, but irrigation benefits depend on how reliably water can be drawn, stored and distributed through the wider network when the project is in regular service.

State figures associated with Phase I put the planned water draw at 10.70 TMC, with an intended irrigation benefit of about 1.19 lakh acres and drinking-water support for around four lakh people. Those are project design and government benefit figures, not acres demonstrably irrigated on the day of the trial. The distinction matters because the Sunday event tested infrastructure; it did not complete a cropping season or establish actual annual supply.

The project is especially significant for drought-prone parts of the region, where dependable water availability has shaped agriculture, drinking-water planning and migration concerns for years. That history makes commissioning politically important, but it also raises the standard for post-inauguration reporting.

Once regular operations begin, authorities should publish reservoir levels, inflows, releases, tunnel performance and the ayacut actually receiving water. Farmers need a distribution calendar, not only a headline capacity figure. Drinking-water beneficiaries similarly need to know when raw-water availability will translate into functioning local supply systems.

Safety is another part of commissioning. The siren used on Sunday reflects the need to warn people when previously dry channels or structures begin carrying water. That protocol should continue wherever new flows can affect nearby residents, livestock or local movement.

The formal opening was scheduled for Monday, August 31, with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expected to participate. That event belongs to the next day’s live cycle unless completed and filed on August 31. For the 31 August paper, the verified Sunday development is the successful trial itself.

Water reached the regulator; the gates and tunnel were tested. The longer story now begins with whether the system can deliver the promised supply consistently after the ceremony is over.