HYDERABAD: Telangana's Irrigation officials have opposed a proposal for construction of a parallel canal from Tungabhadra foreshore by Andhra Pradesh. Telangana officials also wanted Karnataka to submit a detailed project report (DPR) on the proposed balancing reservoir at Navali village, so that the State could then give its opinion on it.Telangana engineer-in-chief C Muralidhar and inter-State SE R Koteswara Rao participated in the Tungabhadra Board meeting through virtual mode from Hyderabad on Wednesday.
When Karnataka officials raised their proposal to construct the balancing reservoir, AP officials said that they would construct a parallel canal from Tungabhadra foreshore to draw two tmcft per day, so that Karnataka need not construct a new barrage at Navali on the upstream of Tungabhadra dam. However, Telangana officials outrightly opposed AP’s proposal for a parallel canal. They also told their Karnataka counterparts that they would give their opinion on the reservoir at Navali once Karnataka submitted the project’s DPR. The storage capacity of the Navali project is 40 tmcft.
Karnataka proposed the balancing reservoir as the storage capacity of Tungabhadra dam was reduced by 31 tmcft from the designed capacity of 134.7 tmcft. Meanwhile, Telangana officials also wanted the Board to include the representatives from the State in the Fisheries Wing of the Board. However, AP officials refused the same, stating that Telangana’s share was just eight per cent in the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS). AP also raised objections over Karnataka drawing nine tmcft of water from small lift irrigation schemes, against their quota of around four tmcft. AP engineer-in-chief C Narayana Reddy too participated in the meeting.