HYDERABAD: Work on the state government’s prestigious Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) is going on at snail’s pace under the shadow of another major project Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS). Though the foundation for Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme was laid by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in June 2015, the construction works for the project are not going on expected lines.
The government gleefully boasts that in just two years’ time the KLIS has witnessed great progress in construction. But the fate of Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme is the opposite. With the government’s main focus being on KLIS, a majority of other projects including PRLIS are not getting due attention.
“The irrigation department’s priority now is Kaleshwaram. We expect that the Palamuru-Rangareddy project will get required funds only after the completion of major portion of Kaleshwaram,” an engineer working for Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme said on condition of anonymity.
Interestingly, both PRLIS and KLIS are the brainchildren of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. But, only one project is accorded priority for the time being. “Though Rs 25,000 crore is allocated every year in the state budget, the department is unable to spend the allocations fully. By external borrowings, the state is able to spend Rs 25,000 crore. A major part of funds is going to Kaleshwaram project,” an official explained.
“The State government may turn its attention to PRLIS only after the completion of Kaleshwaram,” another official opined. But, the PRLIS is the first major irrigation project contemplated after the formation of Telangana.
The estimated cost of PRLIS is Rs 35,250 crore but only Rs 3,700 crore has been spent on it so far. On the other hand, the government spent around Rs 34,000 crore on Kaleshwaram, whose cost is around Rs 85,000 crore.
PRLIS is designed to irrigate ten lakh acres in the parched Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts, besides providing drinking water to Hyderabad. The required 90 tmcft water will be lifted from the foreshore of Srisailam during 90 flood days at 1.5 tmcft per day.
For the record, irrigation minister T Harish Rao has recently claimed that there is no dearth of funds for the five Palamuru projects _ Tummilla, Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Bhima.
Sundilla power sub-station charged
Hyderabad: The 400 kv Sundilla power sub-station, constructed as part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), was successfully charged on Wednesday. Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) is constructing six power sub-stations as part of the Kaleshwaram project, four of them under Link-1. The 400 kv Ramadugu sub-station has already been commissioned, and the 220/11 kv Medigadda and Annaram sub-stations will be commissioned shortly.
The 400 kV Chandrapur and Tippapur sub-stations are being built under Link-2 of KLIS. The Sundilla sub-station involved the construction of 400/220/11 kV sub-station and transmission lines. The sub-station consists of 4X315 MVA transformers and two ordinary supply transformers. The substation is located near the Sundilla pump house at Goliwada village in Peddapalli district. The sub-station will supply power to the Annaram and Medigadda sub-stations and it will be connected to nine pumps.