Centre clears 3 irrigation projects opposed by AP

Hyderabad: Telangana Government has finally succeeded in getting Central approval for three pending irrigation projects Mukteshwar (Chinna Kaleshwaram) Lift Irrigation Scheme which is being taken up in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, Chanaka- Korata Barrage in Adilabad district, and Choutpally Hanumanth Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme in Nizamabad district.

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Chaired by Jal Shakti Ministry, Secretary Pankaj Kumar cleared the three projects at a meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday. It may be mentioned here that these three projects have been mentioned in the unapproved projects list in the gazette released by the Centre in July 2021. The State Government has submitted DPRs (detailed project reports) of the three projects to the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Godavari River Management Board in September 2021.

Officials said that Andhra Pradesh was opposed to the three projects taken up on River Godavari by the Telangana government. The AP Government raised objections on the utilisation of the Godavari water for the three projects without specific allocations. State Irrigation officials said that all the Directorates concerned in the CWC examined the proposals and cleared them. Later, the GRMB discussed the proposal in detail during the 13th board meeting held in April this year and it forwarded its recommendation to the CWC. After reviewing the objections raised by Andhra Pradesh, the commission made its recommendations to the TAC for grant of techno-economic clearance.

During the TAC meeting held on Tuesday, State Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) Rajath Kumar clarified various issues related to concerns raised by the committee. The Committee Chairman, Pankaj Kumar, satisfied and gave his nod and announced that the minutes of the meeting would be released shortly.