`1,067cr to lift water for SRSP

For the first time, the state government is working to strengthen the existing 9.63 lakh acres of ayacut of Sriramasagar project by lifting water.

About 1 tmc ft of water will be lifted for 60 days from the dropping point of Kaleshwaram project to SRSP. The state government accorded administrative approval for the works worth `1,067 crore on Saturday.

The decision of state government will stabilise ayacut of Kakatiya canal up to 116 km spread over 1.78 lakh acres, 36,000 acres of the Saraswati canal, 1 lakh acres of packages 27 and 28 of the erstwhile Adilabad district, 36,000 acres of the Lakshmi canal and Chowtpally Hanmanth Reddy lift irrigation scheme, 93,000 acres of the Gutpa, Alisagar LIs, packages 21 and 22 of Nizamabad district of over 4.40 lakh acres, and 80,000 acres under IDC LIs.

Around 95 tmc of water demand will be met with the lifting process.

Sriramasagar project was constructed with a storage capacity of 112 tmc ft, but due to accumulation of silt and other reasons, the storage capacity has decreased to 80 tmc ft.

In this context, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed irrigation officials to lift the water from Kaleshwaram project to SRSP through flood flow canal.

The decision is expected to bring back the earlier glory of the Sriramasagar project.

Meanwhile, Sriramasagar has not yet begun receiving inflows, though moderate showers have lashed the catchment areas of river Godavari in Nizamabad and Nirmal districts.

It is believed that the project will get significant inflows in July.

Surprisingly, Jaikwadi project across the river Godavari in neighbouring Maharashtra state has begun receiving inflows from upstream areas.

According to irrigation department sources, Godavari basin recorded 1,397 cusecs for Jaikwadi project on Saturday.

Of the full reservoir level of 102.721 tmc, Jaikwadi project had 40.93 tmc ft on Saturday. Meanwhile, SRSP had 8.919 tmc ft as against its FRL of 90.313 tmc ft.