HYDERABAD:Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the officials to complete Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation project in two years and provide water to agriculture needs.
Reviewing the project at his camp office here on Saturday, the chief Minister also directed the irrigation officials to complete all the ongoing irrigation projects on a war-footing basis.
“It has become a habit to take eight to ten years time to complete one irrigation project. This trend should stop and the projects should be completed in a speedy manner,” the chief minister told the officials.
Setting a time-frame for the project, Rao directed the officials to complete the survey works on Palamuru-Rangareddy in two weeks. The designs should be prepared immediately and tenders should be invited without delay. “I will constantly monitor the progress of the project works,” Rao told the officials.
Palamuru-Rangareddy should be completed to irrigate the backward areas of Mahbubnagar district. He asked the officials to prepare plans to provide water to Rangareddy district from Palamuru-Rangareddy.
As part of the project, reservoirs would be constructed at Narlapur, Edula, Vattem, Karivena, Uddandapur and Hemasamudram.
The chief minister directed irrigation minister T Harish Rao to conduct review meetings every Monday on irrigation projects. Rao told the minister to know the progress of irrigation projects works on a daily basis.
Rao declared that the irrigation department would be accorded top priority in allocation of funds in the state Budget. “We will think of other departments only after allocating funds to the irrigation department first in the state Budget,” Rao said.
He assured that every year Rs 25,000 crore would be earmarked for irrigation department to complete the projects. The chief minister asked the officials to hire the services of retired engineers for preparing designs and take up other works in the department.
Rao also suggested the officials to appoint as many agencies as possible to complete the survey and investigation works of various irrigation projects.