Jurala-Pakala Flood Flow Canal

Jurala- Pakala FFC will be the first major flood flow canal on Krishna River covering four out of five districts of Telangana situated in Krishna basin. As it is a gravity canal, it requires minimum recurring cost, but requires more initial investment cost. However, this scheme is required to be taken up in the larger interest of the region in of view of less utilisation of flood water of Krishna when compared to the neighbouring state of A.P. The utilisation of flood water in A.P is 150.50TMC for 31.50% of total catchment area of two states, whereas, it is only 77.0 TMC in Telangana for 68.50% of catchment area. All the four flood flow projects in A.P are gravity schemes with 30, 45 flood days except H.N.S.S which is a lift scheme with 120 days of pumping.

In Telangana all the three Flood Flow Projects are Lift schemes with 120 days of pumping while the flood days in Krishna are only 30-45 days. There are many balancing reservoirs with more than sufficient storages under flood flow projects of A.P state for supplying water during balance crop period i.e. during non flood period. In Telangana, there are few reservoirs with meagre storages under the flood flow projects. The water pumped for 45 days during flood period will be hardly sufficient for 37% of the total ayacut under each lift irrigation scheme and the remaining ayacut will be left without water. As per A.P State Reorganising Act- 2014, the River Board and Apex Council will be constituted to regulate the release of water to each project as per eligibility and period of flood. In such an event, all the lift schemes will become idle and infructuous since the River Boards would not allow pumping beyond flood period.

The Jurala-Pakala is technically feasible and economically viable since levels permit for construction of the canal. The water from Jurala will be drawn only during flood period and stored in the balancing reservoirs to be formed in the proposed ayacut for utilising during the rest of crop period. There may be delay in excavation of lengthy tunnels, but, it is not at all difficult to accomplish the task with the latest technology. There are many advantages in taking up the J-P canal, which are as follows.

1. It is a gravity scheme and requires less maintenance cost.

2. The canal after passing through the tunnel drops in Mid-Dindi and from there it goes upto Pakala as open canal.

3. The irrigation will start from Mid- Dindi onwards. The proposals already formulated for irrigating about 3.0 Lakh Acres can be irrigated with the flood waters of J-P canal. With this proposal, now there will be no dispute regarding utilisation of SLBC tunnel water.

4. The J-P canal then passes through Package-16 of Pranahitha- Chevella project. The extent covered by J-P canal can be deleted from PCLIS and there by the water and power can be saved in PCLIS.

5. The FFC further runs along the upper boundary of Udayasamudram Lift Scheme ayacut which is commandable by the FFC. The power and water required for the lift scheme will be saved with the FFC.

6. The FFC crosses Musi river before entering into the tail end ayacut of Devadula Lift Scheme- III in Nalgonda District. The required extent of water can be released into Musi for stabilising the ayacut under anicuts and Musi project. The ayacut covered by FFC can be deleted from Devadula-III, thus power and water can be saved.

7. The FFC traverses further under which about 1.0 Lakh Acres of new ayacut can be irrigated and 4.50 Lakh Acres of SRSP-II can be stabilised which is starving for water to be released from SRSP reservoir.

8. The FFC ultimately joins in DBM-38 of SRSP¬-I and the ayacut up to and under it can be irrigated.

9. The proposal for bringing water from Kanathanapally by lift for stabilising 7.5 Lakh Acres ayacut under SRSP-II can be dropped as it requires power and huge investment.

10. Sufficient number of reservoirs are to be constructed to store flood water and to utilise for irrigation and drinking water.

There are apprehensions among the people of Mahabubnagar District that their projects will be affected, if Jurala- Pakala is constructed. But, there should not be any doubt about the functioning of the projects dependent on Jurala due to the following reasons.

1. Water will be drawn from Jurala only during 30-45 days flood period.

2. As per the reports of Palamur – RangaReddy Lift Scheme, there will be more than 1.0 Lakh Cusecs of flood at Jurala for 30-45 days.

3. The Jurala,Bheema and Koilsagar schemes are based on assured water, as such there should not be any doubt about their functioning.

4. Nettempadu lift scheme requires 20 TMC in a period of 120 days and drawl of water is only about 2000 Cusecs per day which is meagre compared to the inflows into Jurala.

Ksnreddy

Rtd.Engineer-in-Chief( Irrigation)

E-Mail: [email protected]