HYDERABAD, INDIA — Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) recently commenced operations of the Package 8 pumphouse, part of the world’s largest underground pumping station, India’s Laximpur underground pumping station (LUPS).
The project, constructed 143 metres below the earth’s surface, is part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) in Telangana, in south India.
The pumphouse named after the goddess Gayatri successfully completed a wet run Aug. 11, beginning with switching on the fifth machine. About 3,000 cubic feet of water rose 111 metres to the top and flowed through a gravity canal, indicates a release issued by MEIL.
The LUPS will enable live storage of water in reservoirs throughout the year in the Godavari River Belt. It will also enable reverse pumping of Godavari water into the same river, thus rejuvenating the previously dry areas.
What makes the project unique is pumphouses for lift irrigation projects are generally built at ground level near river banks to pump water to a higher elevation; this one is built below the ground.
To construct the pumphouse, massive underground caverns have been excavated, some measuring 140 metres in depth, 25 metres in width and 65 metres high.
The Pump House Service Bay is located 221 metres below the ground, the pump bay is at 190.5 metres, the transformer bay is at 215 metres and the control room is at 209 metres. The pumphouse consists of twin tunnels, built side by side. The length of each tunnel is 4,133 metres and the diameter is 10 metres. As each motor requires 139 megawatts of power to run, a 160-kilovolt capacity pump transformer along with compressor units have been set up, explains the release.
One of the most uncommon parts of underground construction, according to MEIL, is the surge pools in the pumphouse. To ensure uninterrupted pumping, three surge pools have been built.
Erection of turbine pumps at a depth of 138 metres underground is another unique feature. Each motor pump weighs around 2,376 tonnes.
“The most significant feature of KLIP is that it completed the construction of electrical infrastructure with 3,057 megawatts capacity that comprises six 400-kilovolt and 220-kilovolt substations, transformers, 260 kilometres of transmission lines and seven kilometres of 400-kilovolt XLPE underground cable. In any parameters, this project is the world’s most innovative mega project,” said B. Srinivas Reddy, director of MEIL, in the statement.
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