HYDERABAD: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) will ensure the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) gets water for its entire ayacut of 14,4 lakh acres. The KLIS is indeed a unique project as it has three major barrages, and it will be supplementing the SRSP ayacut. Though Medigadda barrage is downstream to SRSP, water will be diverted to the latter with the reverse pumping method. Nowhere in the country has such a thing happened before.
SRSP was constructed over four decades ago, in 1977. It was never able to provide water to the ayacut it was designed to cater to. This was due to the construction of various barrages by Maharashtra. Thus, the TRS government has decided to divert Godavari water to the project. “Sri Ram Sagar Project will be filled with water from Kaleshwaram this year itself,” announced Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday, as he inspected ongoing work at the pump house at Rampur in Jagtial district.
Rao had in the past taken up the revival of SRSP, instructing officials concerned to supply to it water by reverse pumping from Laxmipur pumphouse. The water will flow through Laxmipur to Rampur from Medigadda, Sundilla, and Annaram barrages through flood flow canals. Rao told officials that the construction of Rampur pump house is an important component in the plan to revive SRSP, and it needs to be finished as soon as possible. “From July, water will have to be lifted from Kaleshwaram. It will have to pumped to Mid Manair and SRSP,” he explained
Rao has instructed the officials to complete the works on five pump houses within a month and works on the remaining three by August. Since water flow is good in Godavari till October and November, water will be pumped for SRSP till then. The chief minister urged officials to work towards ensuring that farmers of SRSP ayacut are supplied water for their second crops from this year. “Hire more people if you need. Meeting the deadline is paramount,” he told contracting agencies.
A project of KLIS’s massive proportions could take anywhere between 15 to 20 years for completion. “The world is looking at us with awe, as we have managed to construct barrages, complete complicated lift irrigation work and setting up of power sub-stations in less than three years,” he said during his review.
Rao later conducted an aerial survey of the Godavari basin and inspected the Medigadda barrage personally. Here, he found out that rubber sealing had been completed for 26 of the 85 gates. He directed officials to finish the work on the remaining 59 gates within the next 7-10 days.