Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) has unveiled yet another pivotal moment in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP). MEIL successfully commenced operations in the world's largest Laximpur underground pumping station (LUPS – The Package 8).
The pump house named after the goddess Gayatri, successfully completed the wet run on Sunday night, 11th August, 2019.
The LUPS would enable live storage of water in reservoirs throughout the year in the Godavari River Belt. This colossal pump house, considered as the heart of KLIP, is an outstanding engineering marvel as it is the world's largest underground pumping station constructed 470 feet below the earth's surface.
This unique pump house would enable reverse pumping of Godavari water into the same river, thus rejuvenating the hitherto dry areas en route.
Massive underground caverns have been excavated to construct the pumphouse and surge pools to lift incoming water from underground. Pumps and motors are being erected to lift water from there.
For this man-made engineering wonder based on scientific and technological grounds, 21.6 lakh CuM of soil has been excavated from 470 feet beneath the surface of the earth to build a power house by using 4.75 lakh cubic meters of concrete.
Nowhere in the world, does such a huge cavern exist with a size of 140 meters depth, 25 meters width and 65 meters in height. PumpHouse Service Bay is located at 221 meters below the ground, while the pump bay is at 190.5 meters, transformer bay at 215 meters, the control room at 209 meters beneath the earth's surface respectively.
The pumphouse consists of unique twin tunnels, built side by side. The length of each tunnel is 4,133 meters and the diameter is 10 meters. As each motor requires 139 MW of power to run, a 160 KVA capacity pump transformer along with compressor units have been set up successfully.
The most amazing part of this underground construction is the surge pools in the pump house. To ensure uninterrupted pumping, three surge pools have been built to store enough water. Erection of turbine pumps at a depth of 138 meters underground is another unique feature of the project.
Each motor pump weighs around 2,376 metric tonnes and one can imagine the massive size of each pump unit. For this reason, these motors are called as 'Giant motors'.
According to prnewswire.com
