Godavari project brings cheer to Telangana amid gloom

After a record paddy harvest, Telangana has another reason to cheer in the current gloomy scenario as the state completed a key stage in the Kaleshwaram project across the Godavari river.

Achieving another milestone in its programme to achieve 'Bangaru Telangana', the state brought Godavari water to irrigate 1.10 lakh acres in the Siddipet and Rajanna Sircilla districts.

Water from the Kaleshwaram project has been successfully brought to Ranganayak Sagar reservoir in Siddipet. Ministers K. T. Rama Rao and Harish Rao formally switched on the pumps releasing water into the reservoir.

This marked the completion of another major component of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), the dream project of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, which is expected to transform the landscape of Telangana.

The state succeeded in bringing the Godavari water from Medigadda barrage in Jayashankar Bhupalapally to Siddipet, a distance of 170 km and more importantly lifting it to a height of 490 meters through massive pumps.

When fully completed KLIS will lift water to 618 meters to Kondapochamma Sagar. This is expected to be achieved later this year.

Rama Rao, the son of Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao, said KLIS would bring a green revolution in the state by irrigating the once parched lands of Telangana. The project, when fully completed, will fill about 46,000 tanks in the state.

It was in June last year that KCR, as Chandrashekhar Rao is popularly known, inaugurated the KLIS along with then governor E. S. L. Narasimhan in the presence of then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Billed as the world's largest lift irrigation project, KLIS is designed to irrigate 45 lakh acres for two crops in a year, meet the drinking water requirements of 70 per cent of the state and also cater to the industry's needs.

The foundation stone for the Rs 80,500 crore project was laid in 2016. Claimed to be an engineering marvel, the project comprises a 1,832 km water supply route, a 1,531 km gravity canal, 203 km tunnel routes, 20 lifts, 19 pump houses and 19 reservoirs with a storage capacity of 141 TMCs.

It requires nearly 4,992 MW of electricity to pump 2 TMC of water every day in the first phase. The requirement will go up to 7,152 MW for lifting 3 TMC in the next phase.

The release of water into Ranganayak Sagar has brought cheers to the state in times of gloom. It comes close on the heels of the state recording a bumper harvest of paddy, which is also attributed to KLIS and 24x7 electricity supply to agriculture.

With record cultivation of paddy on nearly 40 lakh acres during the ongoing Rabi season, the state expects a yield of more than one crore tonnes, the highest for the season since the creation of the state in 2014.