Koyagudem - Kothagudem

Done with the work on the weight bridge in the Koyagudem mines, Vijay and I were riding back on his bike when I noticed this hillock. Vijay told me that it's man-made, it's a huge heap of OB that's over-burden. OB is the earth moved to reach the coal buried deep inside. Most mines in this area are open-pit.


These guys had run out of petrol. Vijay gave them some petrol from his bike, the nearest bunk was 10km.


I'd never seen a temple 'gopura' like this ever before... horse, eagle, monkey, boar and lion. And look at the colors!



That's a dam which supplies water to Kothagudem Thermal Power Station near by. Vijay told me that the reservoir when full has enough water for two years supply to the power station.


The dam's guest house is situated in a woody and hilly part right next to the reservoir. The place is no longer used, ever since the place was bombed by Naxalites. You can catch a glimpse of KTPS in the top left corner of the picture below.



That was my last visit to Kothagudem. I'm not sure if Vijay is still operating the weigh bridge... it was a 120T 12m by 3m concrete deck supported on six double ended shear beam load cells supplied some time 2002.

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memories of Ramagundam visit

This was sometime in 2003.

Praveen and I had come to Ramagundam to try an experiment on Volvo tippers operating in one of the coal mines of Sengareni Colleries. We got a chance to ride in one of the tippers.

We rode an unladen tipper when we went into the open-pit mine, had it loaded with dirt, and returned to the surface. While we waited for the tipper to be loaded, I looked up at the walls of the pit, 100m high, it was scary when a couple of pebbles rolled down. The tipper was loaded in a couple of minutes- quick job by a Volvo backhoe loader. The return ride was slower for obvious reasons... a loaded truck climbing steep gradients. With both side-screens raised shut, the cabin was silent, engine sound was a deep hum.

In the below image, the black stripes are coal deposits.

The objective of our visit was to weigh the tipper and find a way to prevent overloading. The solution we were trying was rather complex and unsuccessful.

We went up a man made hill created by dumping the OB (over burden). The tipper has to reverse very carefully, stop at the edge and lift the bucket... a very risky job.

During the three day stay, we took off few hours to see Godavari. The water, as you see was less flowingly sparsely creating tiny sandy islands. We waded through the thigh deep waters and reached one of the islands. To my surprise I saw a Shiva Linga made of sand. The night before it was Maha Shivaratri, some local person had made a sand Shivalinga in a river dune. Having seen our legendary heroes worship sand Shivalinga in Amar Chitra Katha books, it was my childhood dream of making one. However, I was happy one. A Shiva Linga made of sand is called Valukeshwar.

It was a great feeling to be walking halfway through a mighty river like Godavari. Of course it was a season when the river was timid enough. On the left is my maternal uncle Praveen and on the right is Manikantan, a colleague from Volvo India.

I picked small white pebbles unique to this river... smooth surface, white and light. I noticed my shadow under water... it had a ghostly aura. If you observe it, you can see part of me, my reflection and my shadow.

Though our experiment was unsuccessful, the trip was not a waste since our ties with Volvo got stronger.

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