India’s biggest lift irrigation project takes shape in T’gana
TACKLING WATER WOES The project on Godavari will provide irrigation to 18 lakh acres HYDERABAD:
The Telangana government headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao is virtually racing against time to complete the gigantic Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godavari river. The effort is to make it at least partially operational by August.
For, the completion of the project is crucial for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to seek the people’s mandate for a second term.
Billed as India’s biggest lift irrigation project, involving construction of three major barrages, 20 reservoirs and a network of tunnels stretching 81km, the Kaleshwaram project is also the costliest project ever taken up by any state government in the country with an estimate of over ₹80,000 crore.
The project will provide irrigation to a new ayacut -- the area served by an irrigation project -of 18 lakh acres, besides stabilising existing ayacut in another six lakh acres in 20 out of 31 districts of the state. It would also provide drinking water to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and water for industrial use in many cities.
“This will herald a new era in Telangana, irrigating 35 lakh acres in 15 out of 31 districts,” state irrigation minister T Harish Rao said.
While allocating a whopping ₹25,000 crore for the irrigation projects in the state budget, the TRS government is also tapping various financial institutions to speed up the work. Last month, the chief minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested that the Centre release a grant of ₹25,000 crore for completion of Kaleshwaram project.
The project envisages harnessing water at the confluence of three tributaries of Godavari by constructing a barrage at Medigadda in Jayshankar Bhoopalpally district, then reverse pump the water into the main Godavari river into two stages by constructing two more barrages – Annaram and Sundilla and then, divert it to a huge and complex system of reservoirs, water tunnels, pipelines and canals. About 141 to 180 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) would be harnessed during the 90 flood days of Godavari from August to October.
Since the entire Telangana is an upland region, located at 300 to 650 meters above Mean Sea Level (MSL) while Godavari flows at 100 metres above MSL, water will be lifted using gigantic pumps.
The Ramadugu pumping station near Lakshmipur in Peddapalli district is considered the biggest in the world with seven pumps, each with a capacity of 139 MW. The pump house, built nearly 330 metres underground, will start lifting 2 TMC of water per day from Medigadda barrage through a 14.09 kms long underground tunnel.
“By October, 50% of the Kaleshwaram project works would be completed,” the minister said.
The opposition parties and irrigation experts, however, are very sceptical about the cost-benefit ratio of the Kaleshwaram project.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the KCR government had relocated the original project site from Tummidihatti to Medigadda in the name of redesigning the original Pranahita-Chevella project and jacked up the project cost from ₹35,000 crore to ₹80,000 crore only to benefit contractors, thereby making big money through kickbacks.
Dr Biksham Gujja, former head of water policy and programme at World Water Forum International, pointed out that the state government will have to spend ₹53,000 per acre every year towards operation and maintenance (O&M) costs of the Kaleshwaram project, while farmers at best may get a benefit of ₹15,000 per acre.