Monthly Archives: July 2015

Thotapalli Reservoir Becomes a Reality after 12 Long Years

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All
A view of the Thotapalli Reservoir in Vizianagaram district | EXPRESS PHOTO
A view of the Thotapalli Reservoir in Vizianagaram district | EXPRESS PHOTO

Vizianagaram / Srikakulam : 

After more than a decade, the farmers of the ayacut area of Thotapalli reservoir are overjoyed that their dreams of irrigating their lands would be finally realised. The much-delayed Thotapalli project, except for minor works, has been completed and the Irrigation Department is making arrangements to release the waters from the reservoir in the third week of July.

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Thousands of farmers and their families of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts are excited about prospects of receiving Thotapalli reservoir waters to kick-start the kharif season. The farmers who come under the project ayacut have been suffering as there is no irrigation water to cultivate their fields. Depending on rainwater, some of the farmers who tried to cultivate their lands faced severe financial losses as rains eluded them in the peak season.

In order to provide irrigation water to about 1.24 lakh acres in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts, the government had taken up the Thotapalli reservoir on the Nagavali river in 2003. The project timeline was five years and the estimated cost of the project was `450 crore. The cost later escalated to about `800 crore due to the abnormal delay in executing the project.

The district administration faced a tough time in acquiring 1,100 acres of land for the project. There were a series of agitations by land losers for relief and rehabilitation. After clearing several hurdles, the department completed all the construction works of the reservoir and its 117-km-long main canal.

According to the government’s assurance to the farmers, water from Thotapalli will be available for the 2015 kharif season. The irrigation officials, on a war-footing, completed the works to release the water in the third week of July.

“Pending minor works relating to the 29 distributary canals, four branch canals and two NH crossing works will be completed by July 2. The 117-km-long right main canal of the reservoir was completed except the tail-end 2 km. There is a railway crossing across the 2-km-long canal which will be completed next year. The department had already paid `4 crore to the Indian Railways. Under the Thotapalli project, water will be provided to 40,000 acres (original target was 62,000 acres) in Vizianagaram district and another 40,000 acres in Srikakulam district (aiming to provide 58,000 acres) this year,” said Tirumala Rao, Thotapalli project superintending engineer.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by VK Lakshmi Gayatri / June 30th, 2015

The guys who fix your home problems

Business & Economy

Visakhapatnam :

Necessity is the mother of invention may be cliched statement, but it was necessity that prompted Vizagite Nilesh Korada to set up an online marketplace to cater to home-based services in the Port City.

Incubated at the Sunrise Startups in January this year, Nilesh Korada along with seven other Vizagites, started QuickPebbles, an online marketplace providing high quality electrical, plumbing, air conditioning and computer repair services that can be booked via phone call, website or their Android app.

As of now, QuickPebbles is offering its services in more than 20 areas across the city and has around 400 skilled workforce are offering their services.

“The idea to begin a startup came up actually because I was facing a problem in finding an electrician in my neighbourhood. It is a common problem that people across the city face. Even if you manage to find someone, the service is at times quite questionable. That is when I thought of a startup that can provide skilled workers across different areas of the city,” said QuickPebbles founder Nilesh Korada.

“The idea came up last year and subsequently I met other people at Sunrise Startups with a similar concept. It’s then that we decided to go ahead with this service,” he added.

Explaining the business model, he said, “We focus on quality and providing a swift service to our customers. The startup runs on a commission basis in which we take a little cut for managing the operations.”

Pointing out that the startup had invested around Rs 2 lakh till now, he said, “Once we start delivering around 300 services per month in the city, we will start actively looking for investors for a funding of around Rs 10-15 lakh for our expansion. This will mainly be for marketing and turning the service into a more professionalized set-up. We also want to tap the market potential in other cities as well – especially other tier-2 cities.”

To ensure that the skilled workforce on their lists offers quality services, operations manager Peela Raju said, “One member of our team accompanies the technician to the residence of the customer to oversee the work being done and also to get feedback from the customer on how to improve our services.”

With the development of the website as well as consolidating the database of the skilled workforce taking nearly six months, QuickPebbles launched its service on June 1 this year. “In a span of 20 days, we have done around 50-odd service calls, mainly in areas such as Seethammadhara and MVP Colony. We haven’t done much of a marketing campaign as yet and are getting calls based on word of mouth publicity” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / by Manish, TNN / June 24th, 2015