The Mega Project - Digging up an open well (June 2012)

I got sarcastic comments right on the face when I said that "I am going to dig a open well". But we were very confident because of the test results from our test borewells. There is no point in digging 500 feet borewell when water is available in shallow depths.
Digging a well was once considered to be a daunting task because of time and the labour involved in it. But one can easily dug upto 23 feet with the big machines like poclain.

We hired a Hitachi - 130 for 1350 Rs / Hour.
Well Diameter : 30 Feet

It was very easy for the machine to dug upto 14 feet as there was no hard rocks, but clearing the water was a big issue as the petrol pump which we hired was not efficient and stopped working every one hour.

When the hard rocks surface, poclains need the help of the compressors to drill holes and blast them.
Each time they drilled upto 70-100 holes and applied explosives.It was pretty thrilling to pop out of the hideouts and see the explosion.
I remember that we did 3/4 such operations and every time it cleared 3 feets of rocks.

It took around 48 hours to reach 23 feet beyond that is not reachable for the poclains, also it was difficult to clear the water with our pump set.
It was a pleasant surprise when we saw that the well was in full capacity the next day, it was just 5/6 feet from the ground.

We may need to use man power + compressor to dig further but as of now we are not in need of that.
If there is a shortage after our plantations in next summer we may dig further.

Costing:
30 Feet Diameter X 25 Feet Depth(Approx)
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Hitachi 130 charges: 43,200 Rs (1350 rs X 32 Hour)
Transport: 4000  Rs
Compressor : 20,000 Rs
Total Cost : 67200 Rs