Rayalaseema lift project gets green nod

TS objects to project, Centre has asked AP to stop work on it; environment ministry gives it clean chit

The Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS), caught in a controversy with Telangana state, has received a breather. The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) said that the prima facie requirement of prior environment clearance is not applicable for the project.

The issue has now gone to the National Green Tribunal for determining the rights of AP in pumping Krishna water from the 800 feet level of the Srisailam reservoir instead of 854 feet to the RLIS.

Telangana state has moved the Supreme Court against the project, and Union Jal Shakti minister

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat last week asked AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy not to go ahead with the RLIS.

The minutes of the first meeting of the reconstituted EAC for river valley and hydroelectric projects, held on July 29 through video conference, observed that RLIS does not attract the provisions of the Notification of 2006 and hence does not require environmental clearance.

The committee said that as long as Andhra Pradesh restricts itself to drawing its allocated share of water, environmental impact of the availability of water on other users are not in its ambit.

Further, AP in order to ensure that only allocated water of 3 tmc ft per day is drawn, must instal pumps capable of pumping only that quantity excluding the safety margins.

The committee noted that the RLIS is not a new project and does not fall under any of the categories listed in the schedule of the Notification of 2006, if there is no variation in the project and if the power generation component is not involved.

The committee observed that RLIS comes under the clause of ‘expansion and modernisation of existing project’ as these activities are listed in the schedule to the Notification.

Letters of the schemes to which the project will be feeding water have taken by the state government and a review of the environmental clearance conditions listed reveals that changing from gravity discharge to pumping should not be considered as change in scope of the project, the EAC said.