Telangana Cabinet Ministers participating in a review of Kaleshwaram project near Medigadda/Ambatipalli in Jayashnakar-Bhupalapally district on December 29, 2023. | Photo Credit: By Arrangement
Telangana Government will pursue national project status for Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) and also take up Pranahitha Barrage, the head barrage as part of the original Pranahitha-Chevella project, after re-examining the proposal at Tummidihatti, Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said during a review meeting on the damage suffered by Kaleshwaram project barrages, held near Medigadda on Friday.
Along with Ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar, legislators G. Vivekanand and T. Jeevan Reddy raised several issues pertaining to planning, redesigning and construction of the Kaleshwaram project components. They were of the opinion that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Government had changed Pranahitha-Chevella project to Kaleshwaram owing to the political and other reasons.
They asked the irrigation authorities concerned including Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, who was present there, to explain the issues raised by them either in writing or at a separate review meeting to be held later. The Irrigation Minister stated that with the experience of governance in the past, he was of the firm opinion that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) expert panel report reflected the reality by finding fault in the design, construction and quality aspects of the projects.
The Ministers and legislators alleged that there were large scale irregularities in the project and there was a need to bring them out before people with the judicial and technical inquiries not only into the damage suffered by Medigadda and other barrages but also into the irregularities in the execution of the project itself.
They faulted the previous BRS Government for abandoning the original plan of drawing water till Yellampally barrage with gravity by constructing a barrage at Tummidihatti. It was meaningless to lift water back when gravity flow was possible, they remarked and added that even if the availability of water at Tummidihatti was less the lifting at Medigadda should have been an option, only after drawing the available quantity from there.
Further, they also faulted the engineers of the irrigation department for nodding to their previous political bosses even to the project components which were not feasible. They sought to know why they had agreed for the third tmc ft water lifting component of the project when the existing 2 tmc ft lifting per day component itself was not exploited/utilised fully.
On the issue of Medigadda barrage contract agency (L&T) reportedly refusing to take up remedial works with its own costs, Mr. Uttam Reddy said it was being dealt with separately and could not be discussed in open at this juncture. He also blamed the previous BRS Government for not making proper and sincere efforts for getting national project status to Kaleshwaram.
