Guinness World Record for Polavaram

Engineering and construction firm Navayuga Engineering Company (NEC) has scored an entry into Guinness World Records for pouring 32,315 cu m of concrete in 24 hours. The flagship entity of the Rs 250 billion Navayuga Group, which is currently building the world’s largest flood discharge capacity dam at Polavaram in Andhra Pradesh, has set the record for the most concrete continuously poured in 24 hours and the largest continuous concrete pour at the Polavaram irrigation project. The concrete work to make the spillway began at 8 am on January 6, 2019 and was concluded at 8 am on January 7, 2019.

NEC has been entrusted the Polavaram project by the state government as the previous contractor could not meet the herculean challenges associated with the completion of this massive project. Commenting on this attempt, Sridhar Chinta, Managing Director, NEC, says, “It is an extremely proud moment for Navayuga to be a part of such an iconic and landmark project in terms of its scale, expanse and impact on livelihood. Taking up the challenge of building this mega project is a perfect showcase of NEC’s superior and world-class engineering capabilities."

The unparalleled planning and engineering skills of NEC were the game-changers in achieving a task of such mammoth proportions. Accredited the status of a national project, Polavaram witnessed 20 agitator trucks delivering concrete from 10 batching plants and 90 transit mixers that were engaged in this incredible engineering feat.

The attempt was monitored by an official adjudicator from Guinness World Records in the presence of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. On his visit to the Polavaram irrigation project site, Naidu said, “India has not seen a project of this size and scale. We have not just accomplished a colossal infrastructure milestone but brought India on the global map by breaking earlier records. Besides, we have countered and resolved multiple challenges and have been able to accomplish the work in a very short period of time. We aim to complete this project by May this year.”

The Polavaram irrigation project involves Rs 570 billion in outlay, including land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement. The project is expected to irrigate a total of 42 lakh acre of ayacut in two phases, supplying water to all 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Considered to be the lifeline of the state, the project involves 48 gates, each 20 m high spanning 1.19 km, and required pouring of 36.7 lakh cu m of concrete, 50,000 tonne of steel and 9.3 lakh tonne of cement, which was all completed in record time. The project envisages meeting the water supply needs of an aggregate population of 20 million.