K Chandrasekhar Rao link brings benefits
Redesigned projects turn fortunes of select areas.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home district Medak and Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency held by his MP daughter K. Kavitha will be major beneficiaries of the redesigned Kaleshwaram irrigation project.
Karimnagar district represented by minister K.T. Rama Rao will also benefit.
Mr Chandrasekhar Rao has redesigned the Pranahita Chevella project conceived by then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and renamed it Kaleshwaram.
The cost almost doubled from Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 72,000 crore after the redesign, but the area to be irrigated in Medak district will increase from 5.19 lakh acres to 7.30 lakh acres, and from 3.04 lakh acres to 4.54 acres in Nizamabad district. Storage in the reservoirs in both districts will increase significantly.
The detailed project report is yet to be made public. Finalised recently, it will be submitted to the Maharashtra government when Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis sign an MoU for construction of inter-state barrages on River Godavari as part of the Kaleshwaram project.
A senior irrigation official said the two districts were given priority because the Singur project in Medak and Nizamsagar in Nizambad were drying up or reaching dead storage level due to lack of inflows.
“The earlier project design had a provision to construct reservoirs in Medak with a storage capacity of 3.3 tmc ft. In the redesigned version, it has been increased to 60 tmc ft.
In Nizambad, reservoirs with a storage capacity of 22.40 tmc ft will be constructed now” he said. Tenders are being invited for construction of Kaleshwaram project; some have been finalised.
Contracts worth Rs 7,342 crore are all set to be awarded to the previous contractors of Pranahita Chevella project. A few more contracts worth Rs 6,369 crore will be awarded through the Swiss Challenge mode.
Tenders are being called for new contracts worth Rs 22,407 crore. Tenders worth Rs 10,500 crore were already invited for Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages.