Telangana: Incomplete Irrigation Projects Fail to Store Water Despite Heavy Rain

Adilabad: Even as most irrigation projects in the state received good inflows following heavy rain in upstream areas in Maharashtra and in erstwhile Adilabad district, there was no scope for storing water in Komaram Bheem, Korata Chanka and Sadarmat projects. Water is continuously discharged from these projects downstream because of certain reasons.

Both Komaram Bheem and Korata-Chanaka were hit by land acquisition and funds crunch. There are no main canals for Korata- Chanaka and Komaram Bheem projects while work at Sadarmat has not been completed. Local farmers said these projects are incomplete in many respects.

Although storage capacity of Komaram Bheem is 10.6 TMC, the irrigation department never allows more than 5 TMC of water in the project to avoid damage since the bund of the spillway has many cracks. The project, inaugurated in 2011, was aimed to irrigate 45.000 acres.

Korata- Chanaka barrage on the river Penganga and Komaram Bheem project pose the threat of floods and inundate villages in low-lying areas.

Similarly, Korata- Chanaka barrage was aimed to provide water to Rs 50,000 acres in Jainad, Bela and Bheempur mandals. The Sadarmat project located in Khanapur Assembly constituency is yet to be completed.