The long-cherished dream of Krishna delta farmers will be realised on August 15 when chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will inaugurate and dedicate to people the Pulichintala irrigation project built on Krishna river between the Prakasam Barrage at Vijayawada and the Nagarjuna Sagar dam between Nalgonda and Guntur districts.
“Immediately after hoisting the national flag on the Independence Day, the chief minister will leave for Pulichintala in Guntur district to inaugurate it,” major irrigation minister Peddi Sudarshan Reddy told reporters after a review meeting on Jalayagnam at the Secretariat here on Tuesday.
The KLRao Sagar multipurpose irrigation project was taken up at Pulichintala village in Bellamkonda mandal in Guntur district at an estimated cost of Rs 1,281 crore. The expected rainfall in the project area is 760 mm and is supposed to stabilise 13.08 lakh acres of land in Krishna, West Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam districts in the Krishna Delta. Around 36 tmcft of water will be utilised from the balancing reservoir.
The chief minister reviewed each of the prioritised Jalayagnam projects in detail and asked the officials and engineers to complete the projects at the earliest. On Tuesday the progress of Andhra projects was reviewed and the Telangana projects will be reviewed on Saturday.
The minister said 17 of the 24 gates of Pulichintala dam had been erected so far and the remaining seven would be erected by August 15. Officials and workers engaged in work on other projects will be deputed to Pulichintala to complete the project in time.
Officials assured the chief minister that steps would be taken to create 30 lakh acres of new ayacut during 2013-14. The Jalayagnam began in 2004-05 and 16 projects have been completed fully and 24 partially, creating a new ayacut of about 22.45 lakh acres.