Telangana out to torpedo AP water projects plan

Hyderabad: In a bid to counter the Andhra Pradesh government's move to construct 'illegal' projects on River Krishna, the Telangana Government has come up with a proposal to take up a slew of projects with the 100 tmc feet capacity in the southern Telangana region mainly the erstwhile Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Ranga Reddy districts.

According to sources, these projects will address the perennial irrigation and drinking water crisis in the region. This decision to take up the new projects on Krishna assumed political significance following the withdrawal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court recently by the TS Government on the constitution of new Tribunal and water allocation.

The Government has approved to the construction of Jogulamba Barrage with 70 tmc feet of floodwater through the pipeline and lift the same to the Edula reservoir which is an integral part of the Palamuru Ranga Reddy lift scheme, officials said that this project would fulfill the water needs of Palamuru Kaluwakurthy ayacut.

Officials said that the preliminary estimation says that the cost of these projects would be around Rs 2,000 crore. "Telangana is entitled to utilise 299 tmc ft of water from Krishna in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. But Telangana so far did not utilise more than 150 tmc ft of water.

The proposed new projects will help in utilising 100 tmc ft of water more," said senior Irrigation officials.

The other proposed projects are the Pulichintala left canal to create two lakh acres of new ayacut in Nalgonda and Suryapet districts. Many mandals in the two districts were experiencing drought due to the non-availability of Krishna water during the summer. Once the project is completed, dryland farmers can take up farming around the year.

Another reservoir from Sunkesula to provide water to one lakh acres in Nandigadda and construction of flood flow canal at Kusumarthi village at Krishna mandal where Krishna tributary Bhima enters Telangana would help in optimum utilisation of water during the rainy season. The increase of the storage capacity of reservoirs under the Kaluwakurty Lift Irrigation Scheme by another 20 tmc feet and setting up a Lift at Nagarjuna Sagar tail pond and supply water for irrigation and drinking water purposes for 2 lakh acres under the Nagarjuna Sagar project will be a game-changer in the Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts, they said.

Officials said that nearly Rs 5,000 crore would be required to complete all the newly proposed projects. The Irrigation department has already taken up the preparation of DPRs (detailed project report) and survey for the new projects.

TRS senior leader from Mahbubnagar district Manda Jagannadham said that Andhra Pradesh was utilising 30 per cent excess water allocated to the state. Telangana was hardly utilising 50 per cent of the total allocated waters, he said.

According to him, the Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme, increasing the capacity of the Pothireddyadu head regulator, Muchumarri lift scheme and RDS (Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme) Right canal was illegal and would affect the interests of Telangana. The Union Government should resolve water sharing issue between the two States since following the Apex council's advice Telangana withdrew the SLP, he added.