The irrigation officials conducted the Chanaka Korata irrigation project wet run successfully on Thursday. This fulfils the four-decade-long dream of the people of Adilabad district. It is one of the flagship projects of the Telangana and brainchild of CM KCR. This project envisages irrigating 60,000 acres in the Lower Penganga command area. This season it is expected to irrigate 16,000 acres.
On Wednesday, the officials conducted the dry run successfully. The main works on the project were over and finishing works are underway. The engineers have installed three 5.5 MW and three 12 MW motors. The construction of the barrage, gates and sidewalls was over and the canal works are underway. The engineers have completed the construction of canals of Lower Penganga canals D 14, D 15 and D 16 canals under which there were 5,000 acres of land. The officials are trying to irrigate this part this season.
As the Penganga river flows from Maharashtra into Telangana, there was always an inter-state river water dispute which could not be sorted out for decades. There were agreements between the Maharashtra state and the then Andhra Pradesh in 1978, 1998 and 2012. But they remained on paper much to the disappointment of the people. Only after the formation of Telangana, with the initiative of CM KCR, another agreement was made with the Maharashtra state in 2016 and successfully negotiated and completed the project.
This caters to the needs of farmers who are mostly tribals and also to the drinking water needs of scores of villages enroute. This will bring more prosperity to the people which was a dream conceived by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. This is another feather in the cap of the state government that during its nine long years has completed the stupendous Kaleshwaram project and recently the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation project and now this Chanaka Korata. This is an amazing feat for any party in power to achieve this within a short span of time.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao