One of the costliest lift irrigation projects in the world, Kaleshwaram was touted as the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government’s crowning achievement in Telangana. Any debate on its viability or design was dismissed with disdain by the then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Things came to a head when three piers of the Medigadda barrage, the water source of the mammoth project, sank by a few metres. The auditor general’s report tabled in the state assembly on Thursday finally laid bare the gigantic mess that Kaleshwaram is.
The cost of the Kaleshwaram project is likely to exceed Rs 1,47,427 crore, up from the initial projection of Rs 81,911 crore. The auditor general found the project—which consists of three barrages, 17 reservoirs, several pump houses and canals—unviable for many reasons, prominent being the cost-benefit ratio of just 0.52 paise. The energy cost to operate the project is estimated to be at least around Rs 7,000 crore a year and debt-servicing for the next 14 years is about the same as the project cost. If the project’s objective, which is to irrigate over 18 lakh acres, were met, one could argue that the expenditure was justified.
Regrettably, it does not seem to be the case. If one goes by the audit report, there are many mistakes in the project’s execution. The state government did not have a proper funding pattern and relied heavily on off-budget borrowings. Now the situation is such that water cannot be stored beyond a low level to avoid further structural damage. Any which way you look at it, the project is all but a white elephant.
If a party in power could push through a project like Kaleshwaram in haste, is there an institutional mechanism to stop it? The intentions could be good; but if the outcome becomes a liability for generations to come, we must debate and put checks and balances in place. Telangana has the unenviable task of salvaging the project.
The government has decided to form an expert panel comprising members from the National Dam Safety Authority to conduct a comprehensive study in order to decide the future course of action. It should also ask the Centre and the financial institutions concerned to restructure the loans. And the man whose brainchild it is, KCR, has some explaining to do.
