Tummidhihatti tweak brings down Kaleshwaram cost

​Hyderabad: Finding the design highly complicated, Telangana state government has redesigned the entire Tummidihatti project which is part of Kaleshwaram project taken up on River Godavari. In the fresh design, the project will be constructed on Wardha river. Earlier, it was proposed to construct the project at the confluence of Wardha and Wainganga on Maharashtra and Telangana border. 

The new design will help the government to reduce the project cost from the estimated Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 650 crore. Top officials of the state Irrigation department told The Hans India that the officials had brought to the notice of State Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao the difficulties faced in the construction of the project as per the existing design approved at the time of finalisation of the blueprint for Kaleshwaram project. 

The officials said that every project must be taken up perpendicular to direction of the water flow. In the case of Tummidihatti, the design was finalised at 45 degree of the flow which is highly complicated to manage the water flow at the confluence. 

“The design is found skewed,” Irrigation Minster’s OSD Sridhar Rao Deshpande said. The project with 20 tmc ft of water capacity has been taken up to provide irrigation facility to 2.5 lakh acres in Adilabad district.

On the advice of senior irrigation officials, the minister instructed the Union government’s consultancy WAPCOS to conduct a feasibility study on changing the design of the project. 

The government has decided to construct the project based on the fresh design. Under new design, submergence will take place only in Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra and the land acquisition is also not required. Earlier, it is proposed to acquire 1,200 acres of land in Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts. 

Maharashtra government did not raise any objections on redesigning of the project as the submergence will be minimal. The cost of the project will also come down to Rs 650 crore from Rs 2,500 crore. Officials said that it is required to seek all permissions from the Centre to take up the redesigned Tummudihatti. 

As the Centre has already accorded ToR (Terms of References) to Kaleshwaram project, the state government will approach all central agencies to get the required permissions mainly hydrological, Central Ground Water department, the official said.