CHENNAI: The much-awaited signing of MoU between stakeholder States for the ambitious Godavari-Cauvery rivers interlinking project is likely to be delayed with change of government in Telangana, said senior officials in Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Speaking to TNIE, on the sidelines of All India Secretaries' Conference on Water Vision@2047 - Way Ahead organised by the ministry's National Water Mission in Mahabalipuram, sources said, before the Telangana assembly elections, a high-level meeting chaired by Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers (TF-ILR) chairman Sriram Vedire which was attended by senior bureaucrats from all the stakeholder States. An in-principle nod for the draft MoU was obtained.
However, now with Congress dethroning Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana, one more consensus meeting needed to be conducted. Already, there is an air of disagreement in Telangana over using Inchampalli to divert Godavari river surplus to water into Cauvery.
Sriram Vedire, who was at the conference, acknowledged that there were some disagreements, but the ministry was actively pursuing with the State governments to reach full consensus. “Until, consensus is reached among all the stakeholder States, MoU can’t be signed,” he told TNIE.
He said Telangana interest will be protected and only unutilised water from Chattisgarh will be diverted. The surplus water from Godavari will not be used. The preparation of DPRs of three links namely Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) link; Krishna (Nagarajunasagar) - Pennar (Somasila) link and Pennar (Somasila) - Cauvery (Grand Anicut) has been completed and DPR was circulated to party States/UT.
“Four consultation meetings with stakeholders have been held so far. A Technical Feasibility Report has also recently been prepared by National Water Development Agency (NWDA) to recast the proposal limiting the transfer from 7000 MCM to about 4000 MCM from Godavari along with combining the proposal for supplementation in Krishna basin through Bedti-Varda link as per decision taken during third consultation meeting. The TFR has been ciruculated to party States,” Sriram said.
Breakthrough for Tamil Nadu
In a significant development, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has formally approved Tamil Nadu’s proposal seeking change in terminal point from the original Grant Anicut (Kallanai) in Thanjavur to Mayanur Kattalai barrage in Karur.
This was confirmed to TNIE by Sandeep Saxena, Additional Chief Secretary, Water Resources Department. “For last three years, we continuously pursued this matter with the ministry and finally they gave the approval. The DPR has been updated and given to us. This is a breakthrough for as it would help us meet irrigation and drinking water needs of drier districts like Kallakurichi and Tiruvanamalai”
The top bureaucrat said the reason why the State insisted on the change was the Grand Anicut was in lower elevation, while Mayanur was in higher elevation. “The Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar link canal starts from Mayanur. So, during surplus years, it would easy for us to supply water to drier regions in south if the terminal point of Godavari-Cauvery interlinking project was changed to Mayanur,” Saxena said.