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Godavari to flow backwards to make Telangana fertile
A powerful earthquake once caused the River Mississippi to flow backwards. River Godavari now stands to repeat a sort of such a feat, albeit manmade, if all goes according to the plan of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Nizamabad: A powerful earthquake once caused the River Mississippi to flow backwards. River Godavari now stands to repeat a sort of such a feat, albeit manmade, if all goes according to the plan of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
The massive retro-walk plan of Godavari waters to replenish and revive Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) will get underway on Thursday. The government’s plan is to tackle the dwindling water flow in Godavari due to umpteen number of dams constructed in the upper riparian Maharashtra region and insufficient rains in catchment areas.
Albeit SRSP, constructed across Godavari near Pochampad in Nizamabad district, is regarded as the lifeline of north Telangana region, it barely fulfilled the aspirations of the farming sector.
However, the project’s original storage capacity is 112 tmc ft of water, it had come down to around 80 tmc ft due to accumulation of silt as per the hydrographic survey conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Engineering Research Laboratories (APERL) in 2014.
Though the SRSP Phase-I was envisaged to address the irrigation needs of 9.68 lakh acres, the project never got past the 5 lakh acres mark since its inauguration in 1978.
Against this backdrop, the government’s plan is to divert the waters drawn from the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) to Yellampalli reservoir and FFC within 15 months.
As per the proposed plan, 60 tmc ft of water in as many days will be pumped to SRSP through flood flow canal (FFC) using three lifts. This would stabilise at least 5 lakh acres of ayacut under the SRSP. The revival project which is estimated at Rs 1,067 crore includes the costs of three lifts and land acquisition to the extent of 40 acres.
In fact, the KLIP was originally envisaged to fill the Mid and Lower Manair dams, besides other proposed reservoirs such as Mallannasagar with the waters drawn from Medigadda, Annaram, Sundilla and Yellampally barrages.
However, the government has decided to divert the waters also to SRSP. It may be noted here that KLIP sources water from the downstream of Kaleshwaram confluence where Pranahitha merges with Godavari river. Even though Godavari receives insufficient inflows, the waters flown in from Pranahitha are sufficient for the KLIP.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is scheduled to launch the pylon of the SRSP revival works besides addressing a public meeting at Pochampad on Thursday.
