Hyderabad: The technical advisory committee of the Union water resources ministry on Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the state government’s prestigious Kaleshwaram project. With this, the Kaleshwaram project has set a rec-ord by getting all approvals from the Central Water Commission (CWC).
The project has received nine clearances in a year including for hydrology and environment. Only one, the investment clearance, is pe-nding from the ministry and is expected soon, an off-icial from the Telangana state government said.
The major agreement with the Maharashtra government paved the way for early clearances for the project, he said.
The Kaleshwaram project will irrigate north Telangana and provide water for drinking and irrigation to south Telangana via the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation project.
The latest approval was given at the TAC meeting headed by Union water res-ources secretary U.P. Singh at a meeting in New Delhi. Kaleshwaram project engineer-in-chief Hariram and irrigation engineer-in-Chief Muralidhar explained the key aspects of the project in their presentation. After reviewing the progress of Link 1, 2 and 3 works, the TAC gave the technical clearances.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and irrigation minister T. Harish Rao thanked Union minister Nitin Gadkari for the clearances.
The CWC agreed for lifting 195 tmc ft Godavari water from Medigadda barrage for stabilisation of 18.82 lakh acres and irrigation water for 18.25 lakh acres in 13 districts. The project has 240 tmc ft, including 20 tmc ft from Yellampalli and 25 tmc ft groundwater.
The CWC has already approved the government’s plan to utilise 237 tmc ft from the project. It approved 169 tmf ft for irrigation, 30 tmf ft for drinking water requirement for Hyderabad, 10 tmc ft for drinking water requirements of villages along the project, 16 tmc ft for industry. Another 12 tmc ft was estimated as evaporation.
As per suggestions from the CWC, the capacity of the reservoirs has been increased from 11 tmc ft to 141 tmc in addition to proposing three barrages on Godavari at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. The project has been redesigned to lift 2 tmc ft a day.
