VIJAYAWADA: The State water resources officials are scheduled to have a meeting with Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) on Monday to discuss the Rayalaseema Lift Scheme. The board is also scheduled to convene another meeting on January 12 to reconcile the water utilisation data by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
According to information, Monday’s meeting will be attended by engineer-in-chief (irrigation) C Narayana Reddy and chief engineer (Kurnool) R Muralinatha Reddy for getting the detailed project report (DRP) of the proposed Rayalaseema Lift Scheme cleared. The meeting is expected to be chaired by KRMB chairman A Paramesham.
It may be noted that the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, in the Apex Council meeting in October, had directed the State government to go ahead with the proposed project, to lift 3 TMC of Krishna water per day from Sangameswaram in the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir, only after it is technically appraised by the authorities such as KRMB or the Central Water Commission (CWC). In fact, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) also ordered that the project works be stopped until the approval is obtained.
Subsequently, the state water resources department submitted the DPR to the CWC in November. Though the commission, in December, asked the department to resubmit the report in stipulated format, it is learnt that it has later sought KRMB’s opinion and advised the State to get a formal clearance from the board. In this context, the KRMB has scheduled a meeting on Monday to discuss the technical appraisal of the project.