Flood waters inundating a building near Vijayawada in 2025.
The Water Resources Department is preparing to start construction of a new flood wall along the right bank of the Krishna River. Once completed, it will protect about 20,000 residents of Tadepalli, Mahanadu Colony and Sundarayya Nagar, which fall under Mangalagiri Assembly constituency in Guntur district, from floods. A 1.7 km long wall with a height of 9 meters will be built between the railway bridge and Varádhi.
Human Resource Development Minister Nara Lokesh is likely to lay the foundation stone of the project on March 9. The ₹294 crore project proposal was approved in January 2025.
“So far we have only prepared the ground. After the inauguration, we will start the work in full scale,” said Krishna Central Division Executive Engineer and River Conservator R. Ravikiran. The work will be stopped during monsoon. Depending on the intensity of the monsoons, the project may take at least two years to complete, he added.
The government had earlier constructed a retaining wall on the left bank of the river to protect the low-lying areas of Vijayawada from floods. This wall, 5 km long and 10.76 meters high and built between Yanamalakaduru and Padmavathi Ghat, prevented flood water from entering residential colonies during the September-2024 floods.
However, the previously constructed retaining wall was able to withstand a flood flow of up to 12 million cusecs. After the 2024 floods, when the Prakasam barrage recorded an inflow of an unprecedented 11.47 lakh cusecs, it was decided that the upcoming wall should be able to withstand a water flow of 15 lakh cusecs, Mr. Ravikiran said, adding that the retaining wall would provide relief to the people living in Tadepalli from recurring floods.
Published – 05 March 2026 20:38 IST
