HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has named the proposed Tupakulagudem barrage on the Godavari river after Sammakka, the tribal warrior goddess. This is not the first time that the Chief Minister has named the irrigation projects after gods and goddesses. Earlier too, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project and its three main barrages were named after different deities.
The Tupakulagudem barrage, which would now be called ‘Sammakka barrage’, was proposed by the State government recently to be constructed on the Godavari to store 37 tmc ft of water and to generate 320 MW hydel power at Tupakla Gudem.
The decision to rename the barrage was taken by Rao at a review meeting with the officials of Irrigation Department at Pragathi Bhavan on Wednesday, a release from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said. He also directed the officials concerned to issue orders in this regard immediately.
“The development that the State is seeing is due to the blessings of the gods and goddesses,” Rao told the officials at the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister would visit the Kaleshwaram project on Thursday and also inspect Laxmi barrage at Ambatpally village in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. He would start from Teegalaguttapally residence in Karimnagar, have the darshan of Kaleshwara Mukteswara, and inspect the work on Kaleshwaram project.
The State government plans to lift one more tmc ft of water from Medigadda and pump it to Mid Maniar. With this, the government would lift three tmc ft of water every day from Medigadda.
“In the coming rainy season, water inflow to the projects from Pranahita to Lakshmi barrage would increase. So, the flood water need not be lifted from time to time and diverted to respective canals,” Rao said. The Irrigation Department needs to be alert from now onwards, the Chief Minister told the officials.