Telangana plea to KRMB over use of 45 tmcft water

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has requested the Krishna River Management Board(KRMB) to allow it to utilise additional 45 tmc ft of dependable Krishna water in lieu of 80 tmc ft of Godavari water utilised by Andhra Pradesh through Polavaram project.

In a letter to KRMB chairman, State Engineer-in-Chief Muralidhar said that erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government accorded approval to draw 16.5 tmc ft water by lifting it from foreshore of Nagarjunasagar project via Akkampalli in three phases for twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in 1988.

By 2021, all the three phases were commissioned from SLBC (Srisailam Left Bank Canal). As per KWDT-1 (Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal), 20 per cent of the drawls made towards drinking water supply are to be reckoned as consumptive use.

Hence, by including these drinking water requirements of Nalgonda district and Hyderabad , the official said the total water requirement of SLBC was at 45 tmc ft of water.