RAJANNA-SIRCILLA: The irrigation authorities are a worried lot as many families of 11 submergence villages of Mid Manair Dam (MMD) have not yet vacated despite they being asked to do so by July 31.
The dam has been readied to store 10 tmcft of water. As the submergence villages have not been vacated, it would be difficult to store water now. The dam has been planned to store a total capacity of 25.873 tmcft of water when completed.The state government recently released Rs 45 crore under Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) package for the oustees of the project.
Irrigation minister T Harish Rao has recently announced that those who vacated the submergence villages would be paid a compensation of Rs 2 lakh.
Despite this, the villagers have been refusing to move out of their villages. Their demand is that the entire compensation amount to be paid them first. They are also unhappy with the facilities available at R&R colonies.
According to irrigation authorities, the dam was likely to get a good inflow of rain water during August and September.If the villages likely to get submerged are not vacated, it would be difficult to store water in the dam. Chief engineer of the project G Anil Kumar told Express that as per the agreement, the project works have to be completed by December 2017. Spillway structure was being readied on a war footing basis and river gates have been already fixed, he added.
According to Anil Kumar, MMD is a key project in Telangana. Once Kaleshwaram irrigation project is completed, the water will reach MMD and Lower Manair Dam (LMD) through pipelines. Then, both MMD and LMD will have full capacity of water round the year.
From MMD, the water would go to proposed projects such as Konda Pochamma reservoir and Mallanna Sagar in Medak district.
The water will also flow to Gouravelli and Gandipalli project in Siddipet district. This means, MMD will become a water hub for the North Telangana districts, he explained.
Under this project, about 1.69 lakh acres in the erstwhile Karimnagar district and another 51,000 acres ayacut in Warangal Urban and Jangaon districts will get water. Moreover, Mission Bhagiratha water can be drawn from MMD project.
At present, local catchment areas and SRSP canal and flood flow canals are water source for MMD. Sri Pada Yellamapalli project and Kaleshwaram project pipe lines would be connected with MMD.
Delayed works
MMD project was started by the then Congress government in 2006 at an estmated cost of Rs 339 crore
In 2010, estimation was enhanced to Rs 454 crore
IRVCL, MBL, MSS and APL construction companies got tender
Due to heavy rains, project’s earth bund was breached last year in September
Then, the government cancelled tender and gave works to new construction companies including SRLC, SML and BCOM at an estimated cost of `316 crore
About Rs 870 crore was spent on the project in the united state whereas Rs 1,200 crore was spent in the new state within three years for project construction and R&R package