Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who will inaugurate the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme (PRLIS) on September 16, switching on one of the eight pumps, under the first phase of the eight-phase project, at the Narlapur pump house. It will have the potential to irrigate 12.3 lakh acres, officials said.
The project involves building five reservoirs — Anjanagiri, Veerajaneya, Venkatadri, Kurumurthiraya, Udandapur and KP Lakshmidevipally — to store 67.52 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft) of water. Some of the pumps are bigger than those used on the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS),
The PRLIS has been billed as a lifeline to southern Telangana, especially Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda, as only 36.69 lakh acres of the 72.36 lakh acres of agriculture land have irrigation facilities currently.
The project envisages lifting 90 tmc ft of floodwater in 60 days from the foreshore of the Srisailam reservoir on the Krishna River.
Under the first phase, drinking water will be provided to Nagarkurnool, Mahbubnagar, Narayanpet, Vikarabad, Rangareddy and Nalgonda, besides Hyderabad. Estimated to cost Rs 35,200 crore, Rs 23,684 crore has been spent as of March 2023.
Of the 66,064 acres required for the project, 27,047 acres have been acquired for Phase 1, while the acquisition of 39,017 acres is underway for Phase 2.
The pumps used for the project have a capacity of 145 MW, bigger than the 139 MW pumps used at Kaleshwaram. The pumps were manufactured by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).
Addressing mediapersons at the Narlapur pump house, irrigation minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said that the previous iteration was planned to draw only 7.5 tmc ft per year, and was meant only for drinking water purposes. The revised version is based on 90 tmc ft of water, Telangana’s share of the Krishna waters, to address drinking water and irrigation needs.
“The rulers of the united state earlier misled the people on projects. To say that a lift irrigation project has been completed, the surge pool, pump house, erection of pumps, canals, tunnels and the reservoir where the water would accumulate should be completed. This had not happened in Kalwakurthy lift irrigation project when we came to power,” he said.
Crediting Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao for the project, he said: “After a study on this we decided to take up the project from Srisailam. The then CM of AP said this is a new project without any water allocation and they would approach the court. But the CM set aside such objections and laid the foundation stone on June 11, 2015. The CM had then said that 100 Chandrababu Naidus cannot stop the project and he has stuck to his words.”
“We will complete the canals for distribution of water in the near future,” he said.
