Final nod for Kaleshwaram project

​Hyderabad: The prestigious Kaleshwaram project taken up by the Telangana government got the final clearance from Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Union Ministry of Water Resources on Wednesday. With this, the project secured all major clearances required for the construction of the mammoth irrigation project.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao thanked Union Minister of Water Resources Nitin Gadkari for the approval of the project by the TAC.

Recently, the Central Water Commission (CWC) ratified the irrigation planning as well as the cost appraisal of the project based on the proposals submitted by the state Irrigation department.
The project has already been given environmental and forest stage-1 and stage -2 clearances by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in February this year.

The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) also allowed the TS government to utilise 237 tmc ft of water from Godavari under the project.

The government is planning to utilise 169 tmc ft of water for irrigation, 30 tmc ft for Hyderabad drinking water needs, 10 tmc ft to meet water needs in the villages across the project, 16 tmc ft for industrial needs and 12 tmc ft is estimated as evaporation from the availability of 237 tmc ft of water.

The total project cost has been finalised at Rs 80,190.46 crore. Out of which Rs 33,145.46 crore will be utilised for head works and Rs 47,045 crore to construct canals and distributaries. The CWC asked the state government not to change the estimations for a period of three years.

Earlier, the project got inter- state clearances, hydrological, Central Ground Water department and Construction and Machinery Directorate permissions to take up works on fast pace.