Telangana to reap benefit from water accord

Hyderabad: The countdown for the historic deal between Telangana State and Maharashtra for construction of five barrages on river Godavari has begun. Officials of irrigation department are leaving for Mumbai on Friday to finalise the modalities of the MoU.

• Irrigation officials to finalise MoU with Maharashtra
• The five proposed barrages would come up on River Godavari; three would be constructed by Telangana, two by Maharashtra
• It would be a boon to Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad districts

This would come as a boon for Telangana as it would benefit Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad districts and will help in keeping these districts away from drought and drinking water problem on a permanent basis. According to the Irrigation Advisor to the Government of Telangana R Vidyasagar Rao, of the five proposed barrages that would come up on river Godavari, three would be constructed by Telangana government and two by Maharashtra.

Rao said the TS government has already called for tenders to take up works on Chennakha-Korata barrage which would be constructed by Telangana government. The Maharashtra government had agreed in principle to allocate 2.5 acres of land in Maharashtra for construction of Chanaka-Korata barrage.

But this was only an oral agreement that took place in November 2015. The MoU will formalise all such agreements and would facilitate in calling for tenders for other project works as well, he said. The Chanaka-Korata barrage will have storage capacity of 1.5 TMC of water of which 80 per cent would be utilised by Telangana and 20 per cent by Maharashtra. It would help in irrigating about 13,500 acres.

Telangana government has also recently accorded administrative sanction to Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages, costing nearly Rs 6000 crore, taken up under Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahitha Chevella Sujala Sravanthi Project on Godavari and its tributaries.

Medigadda barrage would be constructed in Karimanagar district at the cost of Rs 2,591 crore. Annaram barrage would come up at Annaram village in Mahadevpur mandal in Karimnagar district at the cost of Rs 1785 crore. Rao said the state government had to reduce the height of BR Ambedkar Sujala Sravanti (Pranahita) project had to be reduced following objections from Maharashtra. To bridge the loss due to the reduction of height they have decided to pick up water at Medigadda and transfer the water at Yellampally.

Similarly lower Penganga project on Penganga river, which is a tributary of the Godavari, will irrigate an ayacut of about 237,600 acres in Maharashtra and 40,000 acres in Adilabad of TS. The projects to be taken up by Maharashtra are at Rajapet and Pimpard. Rajapet project will have storage capacity of 0.7 TMC. Both states will share 0.35 TMC each. The storage capacity at Pimpard will be 1.50 TMC Of this Telangana will get 30 per cent, while Maharashtra will utilise 70 per cent of the water. The cost of this project would be shared by both the states, Vidyasagar Rao added.