NIZAMABAD: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday said the government would take a decision within the next three days on releasing water from the Sriramsagar Project (SRSP) for irrigation. He added that desilting of the reservoir would also be taken up on priority.
Uttam, along with Ministers D Sridhar Babu and G Vivekananda, visited the SRSP to review inflows and water levels before holding a meeting with officials.
Uttam told reporters that the SRSP was receiving an inflow of about 80,000 cusecs, which was expected to continue for another 48 hours. The reservoir, with a present storage capacity of 80 tmcft, currently holds only 27 tmcft, compared with 38 tmcft during the corresponding period last year.
He said the reservoir was originally designed to store 112 tmcft, but silt accumulation had reduced its effective capacity, making desilting a priority.
Uttam said irrigation projects built during the Congress government continued to benefit the state. Referring to the 20-tmcft Sripada Rao Yellampalli project, which is now full, he said it was developed under the Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Lift Irrigation Project.
Criticising the previous BRS government, he said the Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram barrages built under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, inaugurated in 2019, had failed in 2023. However, he said the present government had no intention of abandoning the project and remained committed to reviewing it.
He said the government was following the recommendations of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) and Union government guidelines. An expert committee had recently met in Delhi, and fresh guidelines for continuation of the works would be issued shortly.
Minister G Vivekananda accused the previous BRS government of wasting public money in the name of the KLIS.
Government adviser P Sudharshan Reddy, Nizamabad Rural MLA R Bhupathi Reddy, Nizamabad in-charge Collector Bhavesh Mishra, Commissioner of Police P Sai Chaitanya, Urdu Academy chairman Taher Bin Hamdan and Congress leaders received the ministers.