The giant new £5bn wall being built two miles across massive country

With India pumping billions into its infrastructure, life is being re-injected into one project which has been in the pipeline since before

Plan for one particular which stretches over two miles across the country are now slated to come to fruition by as early as 2027, after it was first proposed in 1941. 

The Polavaram Project, built on the Godavari River in , will be a solution to India’s critical problems in water management, irrigation and energy supply.

It will be the third longest in length, and changing the lives of millions of people. Located 136 ft above sea level the reservoir has a live storage capacity of 264 billion gallons with the main structure of dam able to move 37 million gallons of water per second. 

Its key component, a diaphragm wall, is the first of its kind and will be a whopping five feet deep, buried 194 feet below river bed to control seepage.

One of the dam’s primary purposes will be to provide a stable water supply to over 700,000 acres of farmland.  This was the dam’s initial purpose when it was first dreamt up in 1941. 

At this point the plan was to use it to irrigate crops over two seasons by harnessing the Godavari River, also generating hydropower. 

The two main canals will distribute the water, the left canal measuring 113 miles and right canal 108 miles. Each will carry 132,000 gallons every second. It will also be fit with 12 Kaplan turbines, a water propelling turbine, delivering clean energy to homes and infrastructure. 

The reservoir will also open up the opportunity for tourism, meaning areas like Papikondalu national park will see an influx of jobs and cash.

However, India still has some obstacles to overcome before getting this dam up and running. The dam faced its first obstacle in 1947 when Indian independence and the subsequent reorganisation of states shifted funding to immediate building needs. Then, environmental concerns and interstate water sharing conflicts caused further delays. 

In 1980 the foundation stone was finally laid, but more issues arose for decades before 2023, when construction gained real momentum with an injection of under a billion. In 2024, the construction entered a critical phase as the diaphragm wall construction began.

As the never-ending timeline of the project marched on, costs were raised and so far £2 billion has been spent on it.  Now, preparation for the subterranean elements has begun, with three trench cutters brought in with first expected to arrive this December.

There are two possible completion dates as it stands. July 2027 if they use parallel construction or March 2028 with sequential construction.