Telangana is caught in a cleft stick and the way out appears difficult and risky— at least for now. We are referring to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) that was constructed in a record three years at an estimated expenditure of Rs 92,000 crore and inaugurated in 2019.
It is an ambitious project aiming to irrigate 36 lakh acres, including 18.25 lakh acres of new ayacut. The scheme has had its detractors ever since the then chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao laid its foundation in 2016.
It’s indeed a complex project comprising three barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, 15 reservoirs, 21 pump houses and 1,531 km of gravity canals. The idea is to lift 240 thousand million cubic feet of Godavari water in all during the 120 days of flood season every year. It sounds like a boon for Telangana, which had always been deprived of adequate water for its farmers.
The catch, though, is the power requirement of 9,000 MW once the project is operationalised, which translates to an estimated electricity bill of Rs 10,000 crore, or Rs 37,882 per acre. Several experts and opposition parties had objected to it, arguing that it was unviable and there were other economically feasible ways to achieve the stated objectives. But nobody had anticipated the project would run into a bigger hurdle: the structural damage to the Medigadda barrage and others caused by the floods of 2022 and 2023.
Now, the question before everyone is whether KLIS has turned into a white elephant. The National Dam Safety Authority recommended that a rehabilitation design be drafted for the barrages, but also termed the damage to Medigadda Block 7 irreversible and warned against movement of structures. There were allegations of corruption, too, hanging over KLIS and the Congress government constituted a commission headed by Justice P C Ghose last year to probe alleged irregularities. It hit the headlines recently when KCR deposed before it.
A parallel vigilance probe has called for action against 57 engineers. It is inevitable that politics will play out over the charges, as will court cases. But the main task of the government should be to salvage the project. This cannot be achieved without coordination with the Centre. Action must also be taken against those found guilty of corruption.