Vijayawada 18-12-2002
The rural water Schemes executed by Panchayat Raj department, Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh State, INDIA are deployed with new structural concrete, made of FaL-G. Under the dashing leadership of Superintending Engineer, PGU Bhaskara Rao, this division is breaking all the departmental barriers in implementing these innovations. While answering a question about the applicability of code books and departmental guidelines, Bhaskara Rao said that the State Government GO of 1998 is the highest guideline and he was following all the departmental guidelines with regard to reinforcement designs, concrete strengths etc., except the fact that the concrete was made of FaL-G but not OPC.
This department executed three sub-surface dykes and one check dam with FaL-G concrete in April-August 2002. As against target strength of 100 Kg/cm2 they achieved over 150 Kg/cm2. Gaining inspiration from the quality of concrete that has ably set even in water stagnated areas, as good as OPC concrete, the department has conceived and executed four overhead water tanks at an outlay of Rs 7.2 Million Inspired by further success, the department is working out on projects worth of Rs 40 Million, consisting of sub-floor sumps and over head water tanks in the critical site conditions such as coastal areas of Machilipatnam division. Appreciating the initiatives of the Department, INSWAREB has offered to conduct all the durability tests for the site mixed concrete.