Harish rejects Congress’ tips on LI projects

Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Monday ruled out construction of Mallannasagar project on the lines of Jawaharlal Nehru Lift Irrigation project in Haryana as suggested by the Opposition Congress.

“There is no comparison between Mallannasagar and the project in Haryana. The Opposition, along with jobless retired engineers with halfbaked knowledge, is making statements against Mallannasagar. These people are comparing some minor lift schemes of Haryana with mega lift scheme of Kaleshwarm,” Mr Harish Rao said.

He said that the Yamuna was a perennial river receiving rain and snow waters during monsoon and winter. The catchment area of Yamuna up to Hathini Kund barrage (also called Tajewala Head works) is 12,950 sq km from western Yamuna Canal to Haryana and eastern Yamuna canal to Uttar Pradesh take off, he said.

“River Pranahita at Tekra is 1,08,780 sq km and Godavari at Medigadda is 2,25,652 sq km. The flows are derived only by monsoon, that too in 45 rain days with 100-hours rain. Yamuna has 5.38 times higher yield than Pranahita. The flow in Yamuna basin is uniformly spread in off-monsoon season whereas in Pranahita/ Godavari flows are almost negligible for 7 months,” Mr Harish Rao said.

He added, “As the flow is uniform, there is less need of storage projects on Yamuna in Haryana. Telangana needs large quantities of water to pumped and stored in higher area in short duration i.e. 160 tmc ft @ 2 tmc ft per day from Kaleshwaram. Therefore there is no comparison between Mallannasagar and the Haryana project.”