Banakacherla violates law, Icchampally beneficial for both States: Expert
HYDERABAD: Former adviser to Ministry of Jal Shakti and former chairman of the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers Sriram Vedire has said that the Polavaram-Banakacherla project, proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government, was against the law of the land.
He suggested that the Icchampally project, as proposed under interlinking of rivers, would be beneficial for both the states.
At a “Meet the Press” programme organised by Kappara Prasad Rao of Telangana Journalists Union on “Godavari Waters: Facts and Figures — A Way Forward for Telugu States” here on Tuesday, Sriram said that the AP government proposed the Polavaram-Banakacherla project to utilise floodwaters. He, however, said that there was no concept of utilising floodwaters in the country till date.
“AP is saying that it will utilise floodwaters for Banakacherla. Floodwater is a mirage. It is not a fact. It is illusionary. The Central Water Commission (CWC) did not study floodwaters. There is no official word or sanctity given by the CWC to the concept of floodwaters in the country. The states have no right to plan projects on floodwaters,” he said.
He recalled that nearly 50 per cent of the catchment area of Godavari was in Maharashtra. There would be no end if all the seven co-basin states started constructing projects based on floodwaters, he said.
As per the available water, according to the 75 per cent dependability, AP had no right to construct the Banakacherla project, he said and recalled that the CWC sought the views of all the seven stakeholder states, besides the opinions of Polavaram Project Authority and Godavari River Management Board.
Sriram said that there are no surplus waters at 75% dependability as clearly reported by the CWC and therefore no project is possible on surplus waters. The utilisation of average waters is not possible as per the law of the land. It is difficult to apportion the average waters amongst the co-basin states as projects with combination of 75% dependability and average flows will not blend together, he said.
Based on these facts, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) proposed the Godavari-Cauvery (G-C) link project at Icchampally by proposing to utilise the unutilised assured waters (at 75% dependability) of Chhattisgarh state. Going with this link plan is the best possible way for the states of Telangana and AP, Sriram said. This link project utilises the unutilised waters of Chhattisgarh and it would not touch the assured allocated waters of both the Telugu states. The responsibility to convince Chhattisgarh lies with the Central government.
He said around 90% funding to this project is likely to come from the Centre and the remaining 10% from the beneficiary states. “Through this link project, both Telangana and AP can utilise around 100 tmcft each,” Sriram added.