AP budges on Banakacharla; shelves tenders for DPR

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government had withdrawn tenders for preparing the DPR for Godavari-Banakacharla project. This was informed during the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) meeting here on Friday. The Telangana government had raised strong objections to AP’s Banakacharla project.

The PPA meeting was chaired by Central Water Commission (CWC) chairman Atul Jain, while Telangana Irrigation Secretary Rahul Bojja, ENC (Irrigation) Amjad Hussien, interstate Chief Engineer Prasad and others represented the Telangana government. AP officials from the Irrigation wing and Polavaram project were also present in the meeting.

Officials said that the Telangana government brought to the attention of the CWC that AP was constructing Banakacharla project without water allocations. They added that the project was being planned by utilizing flood waters, which was against CWC guidelines.

Andhra Pradesh taking up the project despite it being against the AP Reorganization Act 2014, officials said. They pointed out that Telangana had formally lodged written objections to the project with the Union Jal Shakti Minister and communicated its position to the Union government and other co-basin states.

Irrigation officials said that AP had withdrawn the tender notice issued on October 11 after reviewing technical and financial parameters.

The tender, which invited consultancy services for preparing the DPR, was expected to pave the way for designing the Banakacharla link project aimed at transferring over 200 TMC of what was claimed as unutilised flood flows in Godavari to Krishna basin enhancing irrigation coverage in Rayalaseema.

Telangana officials also brought to the attention of the CWC that many villages were prone to submergence under the Polavaram project taken up by the Andhra Pradesh government. They sought changes in the design to ensure safety of the villages from submergence during floods in the river Godavari.