Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Pranahita - Kaleswaram project will be completed in five years

Hyderabad: Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Saturday said that the prestigious Pranahita - Kaleswaram project taken up at the cost of nearly Rs 83,000 crore would be completed in five years time. In the media interaction here, the Minister said that the first phase of Kaleswaram project would be completed by December 2017 and the first district to be benefitted under the scheme would be Warangal.

“Once the total project is completed, all north Telangana districts will get required irrigation water creating 18 lakh acres of new ayacut and would stabilise another 18 lakh acres,” he said. Stating that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the project would be forwarded to the Union government to get all clearances at the earliest, Harish Rao said that the reason for the increase in project cost from Rs 38,000 crore to Rs 83,000 crore was because the project has been redesigned for the optimum utilisation of the allocated waters in River Godavari.

Telangana is entitled to utilise nearly 954 tmc ft of water from Godavari. Harish said the Tummidi Hatti and Medigadda projects were being constructed at 148 metres and 100 metres FRL (Full Reservoir Level) respectively as per the agreement entered with the neighbouring State recently. However, there was no bar from increasing the height in future, he added. The designs of the two projects have been prepared at the height of 152 metres and 101 metres.

The Minister said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had convinced the Maharashtra government by holding series of meetings for the construction of the long pending project on Godavari. He said the reservoirs proposed on the project have been planned with minimum submergence and optimum utilisation of water to meet drinking and irrigation needs.

It required 85,000 acres of land for the project construction. The government earmarked Rs 6,000 crore for land acquisition and Rs 1,770 crore for rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced persons. Whereas, the Congress government in the erstwhile AP allocated only Rs 1,071 crore for land acquisition and Rs 300 crore for rehabilitation under the scrapped Pranahita- Chevella project.

The total requirement of power for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project would be 4,700 MW, Harish said, adding that the grid works taken up on three stretches would be completed soon and the required power would be purchased at cheap prices from power surplus states.  


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