Retired Irrigation Engineers Back Pranahita-Chevella Barrage
Update: 2024-06-15 16:51 GMT
ADILABAD: A team of retired engineers from the irrigation department has called for construction of B.R Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Sujala Sravanti barrage on the Pranhitha as an alternative to the defective Medigadda barrage of the Kaleshwaram scheme, after a visit to the site at Tummidihatti where the project was supposed to be built.
Construction of the Pranahitha-Chevella project was proposed at Thummdihatti in Kautala mandal in the erstwhile Adilabad district by the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government. Later, it was proposed that water could be given to two lakh acres from project. However, the BRS government of K. Chandrashekar Rao scrapped the project, and focused on the Kaleshwaram scheme.
After visiting the Tummidihatti site, Patha Venkataramana, a member of the team, said that water from Pranahita- Chevella can be taken to Yellampalli with gravity. He added that soon a team of retired engineers from Hyderabad will meet Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and explain about the advantages that come with the Pranahita-Chevella barrage. Reservoirs constructed downstream could be used to take the water to south Telangana.
The team also included Bheemaiah, Pulla Reddy, Sriram Reddy, Raghuma Reddy, Venkataiah, Hanumantha Reddy and Ravindranath.
During his Lok Sabha elections campaign, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had promised in Adilabad that the Congress government would construct the project at Tummidihatti towards which talks were underway with Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, Sirpur (T) BJP legislator Palvai Harish Babu said that the Central government was ready to give 60 per cent of the funds required for the construction of the Pranahita-Chevella barrage.
It may be recalled that BJP leaders, led by Harish Babu, had taken out a Pranahitha Jala Sadhana padayatra and later met Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and G. Kishan Reddy urging them to look into their demands in 2022.