RAISING THE HEIGHT OF THE ALREADY CONSTUCTED WEIR ACROSS BETWA RIVER FOR BHARAT OMAN REFINERIES LIMITED

V T LONDHE MARCH2010–JUNE 2011

As everybody knows that a weir across Betwa River along with the intake structure and the concrete bridge was already constructed for BORL by M/S Sew Infrastructure Limited from 2007 till 2009 when I was their only consultant.

This can very well be seen in my website. (www.vtlondhe.com).

PREFACE

The Chief Engineer WAPCOS New Delhi and myself were already known to each other since I had been associated with WAPCOS New Delhi during my service in the Water Resources Department Govt. of M.P. The Raw water intake system for BORL Bina which included the construction of a weir across River Betwa along with constructing an Intake Well on the upstream of the weir with the connecting bridge with piers completely designed by Water and Power Consultancy Services New Delhi) was constructed wherein I was the General Manager. At that very time I as the Retired Engineer-in Chief and the General Manager of the contractors had advised the client BORL and also the Chief Engineer WAPCOS New Delhi that they should get increased the height of the weir by at least 2 meters but they did not agree at all at that time to my advice. The project was however completed by us in August 2009 as planned by the client. After about 2 years I received a telephone call from Chief Engineer WAPCOS New Delhi requesting me as to whether there is any contracting firm who can execute the work of increasing the height of the existing weir by 1 meter only. I had in my memory that M/S Natconn whose consultant happens to be me only can execute this type of work if at all they can compete in the tender. However the tender was floated and M/S Natconn tendered for the same. During discussions with the client, BORL told us that they would agree to award this work to M/S Natconn only because I am the consultant to this firm and also the General Manager during the construction of this very weir in the beginning up to August 2009 After about 2 years I received a telephone call from the Chief Engineer WAPCOS New Delhi requesting me as to whether there is any contracting firm who can execute the work of increasing the height of the existing weir by 1 meter only. I had in my memory that M/S Natconn whose consultant happens to be me only can execute this type of work if at all they can compete in the tender. However the tender was floated and M/S Natconn of Navi Mumbai tendered for the same. During discussions with the client, BORL told us that they would agree to award this work to M/S Natconn i only because I am the consultant to this firm and that I happened to be the General Manager during the original construction. At such time again I had asked BORL to get increased the height of the weir by at least 2 meters but at this time ,however, they told me that they are planning to construct a Barrage on this Betwa river further upstream of the weir. And Finally M/S Natconn took up this work pleasingly and started execution.

Then after a few years, the respective BORL authorities tried to contact me on phone requesting me to arrange for an agency who can arrange to raise the height of the existing weir by only one meter.

I, therefore, tried to contact M/s Natconn authority (Mr.V.S Jha) and asked to take up this small work under my consultancy. He immediately agreed to submit the when the tenders will be published.

Once tenders were published, M/S Natconn submitted their tender along with three other tenderers.

In the mean time BORL authorities were having talks with me on phone they told me that as M/S Natconn are having me as their consultant.. This was because the authorities basically remembered that I was the only consultant for SEW Infrastructure Limited who had actually constructed this original weir.]

On this the BORL authorities accepted their tender and issued the order to start the works.

WORKS

For starting the actual works, we considered the whole length of the weir in 2 (two) parts and started the protection works of right side of the already constructed weir by providing earthen ring bund on the upstream, along the river flow and also on the downstream. Then we had removed the whole water from the area and removed the whole silt and sand and then cleared the complete area firstly from the upstream and then from the downstream also. The actual construction activities were started as per construction drawings. Similar activities were taken up on the downstream side also.

Similar activities were also executed on the left side of the already constructed weir also.

The five silt removal gates were also raised along with raising of the weir. The top curvature of the weir was then made smooth as per construction drawings.