3 Musi projects to replenish drought-hit farm lands

Bhongir: Barren lands of drought-hit areas of Yadadri district and part of Nalgonda district would soon turn fertile with the touch of Musi water through the canals of Pillaipalli, Dhramareddypalli and Bunadigani minor irrigation projects.

Earlier, some of the farmers of respective canals area alleged that the construction works of the above canals were halted all of sudden under Congress regime in united Andhra Pradesh, due to non-sanction of funds by the then State government.

As part of Telangana Agriculture Policy of providing irrigation waters to 1 crore acres in each constituency, the State government turned its focus on the associated projects of Musi river in Yadadri district and sanctioned Rs 300 crore for redesigning and restructuring of Pillaipalli, Dhramareddypalli and Bunadigani canal projects.

Chief Engineer of Minor Irrigation (Krishna Basin) Suresh Kumar informed that the tender process of three canal works would be completed by March 1. Works would be started immediately and would be completed as per the schedule.

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and Power Minister G Jagadish Reddy have been regularly reviewing the progress of the works of all the three projects with officials concerned.

Thirty two villages of Budhan Pochampalli, Choutuppal, Ramannapet in Yadadri district and part of Chityal mandal of Nalgonda district would get irrigation facility due to redesigning of the Pillaipalli irrigation scheme.

Also, farmers of 48 villages of Bibinagar, Bhongir, Valigonda, Athmakur, Mothkur, Motakonduru and Addaguduru mandals in the district would benefit through Bunidigani canal scheme.

In the same way, 40 villages of Valigonda, Ramannapet mandals in Yadadri district, part of Chityal and Narketpally mandals in Nalgonda would get irrigation facility under Dharmareddypalli canal scheme.

Officials informed that due to the restructuring of the three irrigation projects, the coverage area of ayacut is going to be increased four times.

Farmers under three projects submitted a memorandum on the significance of construction of projects to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during the launching of Haritha Haram at Gundrampalli last year.

The CM responded to the plea of farmers and sanctioned an amount of Rs 300 crore for completion of the projects. Consequently, the irrigation officials expedited the process and called for the tenders.

In earlier design, there were only few distributaries with focus only on main canals, but the State government for the welfare of farmers added maximum possible distributaries to the three irrigation projects, officials informed.

During the redesigning, the width of canals of Pillaipalli, Bunadigani and Dharmareddypalli main canals changed from 5m to 10m for easy flow of 200 cusecs against earlier design of 50 cusecs.

Previously, there were only 18 distributaries under Pillaipalli project, now it has increased to 46 to fill 80 water bodies as against 30 of old design. At present, the water flows 66 km distance in main canal and as many as 22,500 acres would get irrigation facility as against 7,717 acres in old design.

Under Dharmareddypalli irrigation scheme, Musi water flows a distance of 82 km through 16 distributaries and fills 36 water bodies en route. As many as 17,787 acres will be irrigated which is almost 8 times more than the previous design.

Similarly, the earlier design of Bunadigani canal had no distributaries, but in new design it had 18 distributaries to fill 57 water bodies en route. However in new proposal, it is further increased to fill 93 tanks in the interest of farmers.

Superintending engineer Dharma Naik informed that canal works would be commenced immediately once tenders WERE approved by high-level committee.

“Plans are afoot to complete 60 to 70 per cent total works of three canals by July by engaging more machines for every 2 km to utilise the upstream flood water that flow into Musi during the rainy season,” he added.