HYDERABAD: Asserting that his government was ready to convene a joint session of the Assembly and Legislative Council if former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao wrote to the Speaker seeking a debate on the Kaleshwaram project, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday said that he was ready to hand over the barrages — the key components of the scheme to the BRS supremo to restore.
“We will request the Speaker and the Council Chairman to conduct a joint session on the Kaleshwaram project. Let us also allow experts into the House with the Speaker’s permission. We are ready for a debate whenever KCR writes to the Speaker. We will also write to the Speaker. Let us discuss facts,” Revanth said.
He added: “We will hand over the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages to KCR. Let us see what he will do. Remove L&T and the other contractors, appoint KCR as the main contractor and hand over the entire Kaleshwaram project to him. Ask him to restore it. If KCR gives good suggestions, the government is ready to adopt them.”
Questioning why KCR was not willing to debate the issue, Revanth asked: “Don’t you have responsibility? Are you not drawing a salary? Don’t you have the status of Leader of the Opposition?” He alleged that the Kaleshwaram project was executed in haste “to loot thousands of crores” within two to three years and accused the BRS of spreading “misconceptions” about the project.
The chief minister made the remarks after attending a PowerPoint presentation titled “The Collapse of Kaleshwaram Project”, delivered by Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy at Praja Bhavan.
Referring to BRS leaders’ demand that the project be handed over to KCR for a week, Revanth said: “KCR is not directly asking. He is sending half-knowledge persons to make the demand.”
Responding to criticism over the government’s decision not to lift water despite inflows, he said: “The Kaleshwaram project was designed to utilise floodwaters. When El Niño conditions prevail, how will floods come?”
Harish, KTR are financial terrorists, charges Revanth
Revanth alleged that KCR redesigned the Pranahita-Chevella project as the Kaleshwaram project to benefit contractors through commissions.
He claimed that a committee of retired engineers constituted by the previous government had advised against constructing a barrage at Medigadda, but the report was suppressed and another report was obtained from WAPCOS supporting the location.
The chief minister said the original Pranahita-Chevella project, conceived by the then Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh, was designed to irrigate Rs 16.4 lakh acres at an estimated cost of Rs 38,000 crore. A total of Rs 11,670 crore was spent on the project before it was redesigned, including Rs 6,157 crore before Telangana’s formation and Rs 5,523 crore after statehood.
“KCR, KTR and Harish Rao may be experts in politics and manipulation, but not in irrigation or engineering. They are neither civil engineers nor structural engineers. Their only expertise is spreading lies and collecting money for elections,” he said.
Citing CAG estimates, Revanth said the cost of the Kaleshwaram project was Rs 1.47 lakh crore, of which Rs 1.02 lakh crore had been spent, but alleged that no ayacut had been created and no distributary canals had been constructed.
Explaining the failure of the Medigadda barrage, Revanth said the project was inaugurated in June 2019 and that on June 18, 2020, the then executive engineer BV Ramana Reddy wrote to L&T pointing out damage and seeking immediate repairs. He alleged that repairs were not carried out, leading to the eventual collapse.
He further alleged that retaining walls at the Annaram and Kannepally pump houses collapsed during the 2022 Godavari floods, Kannepally pump house was submerged and its machinery was damaged. “This problem did not arise in a single day. Negligence since 2020 ultimately led to the collapse of the Medigadda piers in 2023. Soil testing was not done. The barrage was built on sand,” he said.
Revanth also referred to a report by Sir Arthur Cotton, claiming it had concluded that constructing projects up to Ichampally was not feasible.
Referring to KCR’s reported remarks on the sinking of four piers, the chief minister said: “KCR says nothing will happen if four pillars sink. Medigadda is the spine of the project for lifting Godavari waters. What happens if the spine of a human being is damaged?”
He added, “Are we not utilising projects built during the BRS government? Are we not using the Secretariat? Have we stopped Shadi Mubarak, Kalyana Lakshmi or Rythu Bandhu? If Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla were really useful, we would have made them operational. We are now in a helpless situation.”
In a sharp attack on the BRS leadership, Revanth described KCR, KT Rama Rao (KTR) and T Harish Rao as “financial terrorists”.
Revanth alleged that the BRS government had left Telangana with 8.11 lakh crore in debt and accused the KCR family of working against the state’s interests.
He said the previous government had borrowed Rs 97,000 crore for the Kaleshwaram project and claimed the present government repaid Rs 33,574.11 crore in 2025-26 alone. He added that over the past 30 months, the government borrowed Rs 1.85 lakh crore while repaying Rs 2.08 lakh crore in debt.