HYDERABAD: While allaying fears of some AP farmers over the Maharashtra-Telangana pact on Godavari river waters, the state government adviser (Irrigation) R Vidyasagar Rao said that the pact would not affect the interests of AP.
Vidyasagar Rao, in a release on Saturday, said that there was no basis in the allegations that silt would accumulate in the proposed Medigadda barrage if the height of the barrage was reduced. “The floods will clear the silt. During the maintenance of the gates, the silt will be flushed out,” Vidyasagar Rao explained.
Some farmers in Andhra Pradesh expressed fears that the Maha-TS pact would be detrimental to their interests. “As per the Bachawat Tribunal, the assured waters in Godavari for AP is 530 tmc and the same water is available for AP from Godavari (G-10), Sabari (G-12) and Indravati (G-11). It is the responsibility of the Godavari River Management Board to see that AP gets its share of assured waters,” Vidyasagar Rao said.
On the Pranahita-Chevella reengineering, Vidyasagar Rao said that the then Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan wrote a letter to the then combined AP government to reduce the height of Tummadi Hatti barrage from 152 metres to 148 metres in order to save 30 villages in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts in Maharashtra and also to avoid submergence of 2,100 hectares of land there. That was why the TS government reduced the height of Tummadi Hatti barrage and proposed an alternative barrage at Medigadda as part of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, Vidyasagar Rao explained.
Vidyasagar Rao also said that the technical details, use of water, the submergence areas and the water to be drawn by Maharashtra and Telangana states from Tummadi Hatti, Medigadda and Chanaka-Korata barrages would be decided at meeting to be held in Hyderabad on March 19.
The height of the Tummadi Hatti whether it is 152 metres or 148 metres was immaterial as it was only a lift scheme and not a gravity scheme.
As there was no water availability in Godavari due to the illegal projects in upper riparian states, SRSP, Nizam Sagar and Singur were completely dried up and they turned as playgrounds, Vidyasagar Rao said.
The water availability was more in Pranahita and Indravati rivers and the state planned to construct new barrages on these rivers. The state government planned to draw 20 tmc at Tummadi Hatti and the remaining 140 tmc of its share from Medigadda.
The water drawn at Medigadda will be diverted to Yellampalli through Annaram and Sundilla barrages.
The existing ayacut under SRSP, Nizam Sagar and Singur projects too would be stabilised with Indravati water through a lift at Tupakulagudem, Vidyasagar Rao said.
Hyderabad city too would be allotted 50 tmc for drinking water needs from Indravati waters. Indravati waters would also be allocated to SRSP second phase ayacut, Vidyasagar Rao explained.