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Irrigation projects progress at snail’s pace in Palamur
Highlights
Works of all most all the major irrigation projects in Mahabubnagar district are going on at a snail’s pace due to lack of coordination between various departments in the district.
Lack of coordination among various departments stalls major projects in the district
Mahabubnagar: Works of all most all the major irrigation projects in Mahabubnagar district are going on at a snail’s pace due to lack of coordination between various departments in the district.
At present, the engineers are busy designing a comprehensively project plan for the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation project (PRRLI) and the district officials from the irrigation department have already sent a report to the Central Design Organisation (CDO) for the final approval of the design. According to sources from the CDO, “PRLLI is a major project and it needs to get clearances from the experts. A team of engineers conducted a tour to various projects in India and Tajikistan and we are in the process of preparing a comprehensive design report which will be soon cleared for the final approval,” informed a source from CDO.
However, the district administration, along with revenue and irrigation departments, is busy in the land acquisition process for all major projects which are going on war-footing. Despite all these, the pace of works are being hindered due to lack of coordination from other central departments like Railways, Roads and Buildings etc and it looks like the major irrigation projects may not meet the deadline if they continue to have lack of coordination, according to an irrigation expert.
In addition to PRRLI, there are four other major irrigation projects viz., Bheema, Nettampad, Kalwakurthy and Koilsagar projects in the district whose works are going on for the past many years. Though the Telangana government categorically approved to release Rs 500 crore completing all the pending works on these projects in the district, going by the present pace of works, it looks difficult to even reach at least 10 per cent of its set target by the end of this year.
In fact in the erstwhile AP, the Congress government had initiated four major irrigation projects in Mahabubnagar district with an aim to create a total irrigation potential of 8 lakh acres by the end of 2016, but it could not complete these projects in time. Soon after the formation of Telangana State, the present government had taken up these projects on priority basis and wanted to complete them one year ahead by the end of 2015 and set the target to provide water to irrigate 7.93 lakh acres. But the works on these projects are left pending for a long time and it may not be even possible for the government to complete at least 80,000 acres by this year-end.
It is ironic, how such big projects are taken up without even taking the clearances from the Railways despite knowing that the cannels will cross railway lines. For instance, in Bhima lift-2 major irrigation project, under Ramanpad reservoir stage-1 package, the main canal heading to Tirumaliahpally pump house is left pending due to non completion of railway crossing over-bridge. Because of this, the water from the canal is diverted to other reservoirs of Sankarasamudram, Yenukunta and Rangasamudram reservoirs.
In fact under this package, the government has a target of creating 26,000 acres of ayacut in the district. Overall, there are about five major railway lines crossing the district and about eight railway crossing are to be constructed over these canals, but so far only three have been taken up and even these works are going on a slower pace due to lack of coordination from the railways, revenue and engineering departments.
Earlier, the State government had deposited Rs 4.10 crores out of Rs. 5.88 crores for railway crossings but still these works are left pending.
According to sources from the Irrigation department, for the year 2015-16, Rs 1,274 crore is required for completing the pending works of the major irrigation projects in the district. The State government has released Rs 661 crores and is set to release another Rs 500 more to complete them on time.
A Raju
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