DESI DISCOVERY QUIZ 19

The correct answers are:

Photo 1: Project Sea Bird, Karwar.

Photo 2: LPG tavern, Vizag

Video clip: The phenomenon: Lake tapping.  Location: Koyna Dam, Maharashtra,

The linking factor : All are engineering projects that are completely underground.

Sea Bird is a defence project where naval ships are lifted from the sea onto the ground for carrying out repairs &  rehabilitation with ease.  Everything is below ground. You only see ships above ground. Located at Karwar –which  is a small beach town on the Konkan coast a little over an hour & a half drive  from Goa. It is amazing to see huge ships –carrying iron ore- berthed just a stone’s throw from the main road in India .

The LPG tavern at Vizag is technically around 200m under the sea ( & not under ground )in an open cave. It is a safe & economical way  to store huge amounts of LPG . The water head ensures that the LPG is safely locked beneath. Vizag has a submarine on its beach that is open to the public. It is a must place to visit to realize that life inside a submarine is not glamorous.  It makes you wonder if the 2000 crores per submarine is worth anything.

The humble & relatively unknown outside MH  -Koyna dam is India’s largest completed hydel power  plant generating  a phenomenal 1960MW of clean electricity. The entire generation facility is underground. This project was set up in 1950-1960’s, when each coal based power plant that our parents in BHEL built was to a capacity of only 60MW – 110 MW. (BHEL Trichy itself came up only in 1963 or so. In a couple of years, Koyna is likely to generate additional 600 MW of clean solar power from the panels that will be made to float on the around 800 Sq. KM water surface in the dam area!! 

Asia’s first Lake tapping was done at Koyna; A lake tap involves excavating a tunnel almost to the water/rock contact and then blasting out the final protective rock to allow water to suddenly inflow into the tunnel from the lake..

Nestled in the sahayadri’s it has withstood some high intensity earthquakes. Koyna Dam is situated 100KM from Karad on the Pune-Banglore Highway on the winding ghat road to Chiplun. Not very far away from our Kirloskarvadi township. While the summer  is extremely hot, the monsoon  instantly greens the ghat’s & some spectacular waterfalls ( June -July ) come up from nowhere.  Some interesting photo shots in the power point file.

The June-July monsoon based OZARDE  water fall at Koyna -the only annual picnic activity of our Kirloskarvadi  Club is a fantastic experience. Once you are near the falls with its spray drenching you, there is only one song that comes to your mind – Megam Karukudu from the move Kushi. The song & the initial visuals so beautifully captures the minds joy when in a waterfalls.

All villages in & around Kirloskarvadi – apart from being the sugar bowl of India, grows luscious green grapes ( Jan end to mid May). You can go into any farm, pluck & eat as much as you want (free). It’s only when you want to take home some, that you are charged Rs.20 a Kg. Post season- the grapes are dried in shade under huge sheds to produce dry grapes (Kismis). Since most of my colleagues here have farms, We get our yearly supplies of the choicest farm fresh & dry grapes absolutely free.