Clearing the air on the hue and cry raised over the design changes on the Pranahita-Chevella project, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday said it will be divided into two projects.
A small barrage would be built at Tummidi Hatti village in Adilabad district (the place envisaged earlier) and another major barrage at Medigadda near Kaleswaram (the alternative place picked up by the TRS government).
The barrage at Tummidi Hatti will provide irrigation water to Adilabad district while the Medigadda barrage will provide water to Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal and Nalgonda districts.
With objections from Maharashtra government on the submergence of its land under Pranahita-Chevella, the state government has decided to divide the project into two so that the submergence in Telangana or Maharashtra will be very minimal.
At a six-hour long review meeting at his camp office, Rao cleared doubts over the Pranahita-Chevella project.
According to sources, the government has decided to divide Pranahita-Chevella into two parts and link up the project with Nizam Sagar and SRSP.
Rao reviewed the pending irrigation projects in Godavari river basin with irrigation department officials.
On the existing Devadula project, Rao felt that the project was unable to provide irrigation water to the proposed ayacut.
“Sufficient water is not available at Devadula. Though, the project was supposed to lift water for 170 days, it could not lift water even for 90 days. The proposed Kanthanapally project should be linked up with Devadula to overcome this problem,” Rao said.
The proposed site of Kanthanapally would be changed so that it would also be useful for linking up with Devadula project, the chief minister said.
As part of TRS’ election promise to provide irrigation water to one lakh acres in each Assembly segment, Rao said there are 54 Assembly segments in Godavari basin.
“After leaving the four urban Assembly segments, the remaining 50 Assembly segments will get irrigation water for one lakh acres each taking the total irrigated area to 50 lakh acres,” he said.
Already, 10 lakh acres in Godavari basin was getting water and the plan should be that the remaining 40 lakh acres should also get water, Rao said. To achieve the target of 40 lakh acres, the government proposed to utilise its share of around 400 tmc water in Godavari.
“The water allocation for Telangana in Godavari is 953 tmc. Projects were already constructed to utilise 433 tmc. Projects should be proposed to utilise the remaining share of 521 tmc,” Rao said.
For best utilisation of Godavari water, the state government has asked the Central government organisation WAPCOS to redesign the existing and ongoing projects. The government requested WAPCOS to submit its reports on various projects as early as possible.
Change in Design
- Pranahita-Chevella to be divided into two parts
- One barrage to come up at Tummidi Hatti in Adilabad and another at Kaleswaram to irrigate lands in Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal and Nalgonda.
- Water allocated for TS in Godavari is 953 tmc
- WAPCOS asked to redesign projects
The barrage at Tummidi Hatti will provide irrigation water to Adilabad district while the Medigadda barrage will provide water to Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal and Nalgonda districts.
Source: The New Indian Express