Andhra Pradesh - Karimnagar   

Inchampalli back in limelight

K.M. Dayashankar

State Government charged with neglecting the multi-purpose irrigation project

KARIMNAGAR : The prestigious Inchampalli multi-purpose irrigation project with a potential of changing the economic scenario of Telangana region has come into focus again with the entire opposition parties asking the Government to execute the project while the State Government keeping aside the project and taking up the Polavaram project.

The project on the river Godavari, which is located at the tri-junction of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, has been bogged down following the conditional environmental clearance due to submergence of forestland, if the project is constructed at a height of 112.77 metres.

About 30 years ago, the three states agreed to work together for the project at a height of 112.77 metres and produce 975 MW of power and utilise 498 tmcft of water. However, 229 villages would be submerged on 92,555 hectares of land and over a lakh people would be displaced, if it was built at that height.

Submergence issue

The areas that face submergence include Andhra Pradesh (36,875 hectares), Maharashtra (33,614 hectares) and Chhattisgarh (24,137 hectares).

Inchampalli is being talked about again by leaders of various parties for the alleged neglect on the part of the Government in the execution of the project. Congress legislators of the region, when they were in the Opposition, formed into a forum and conducted a padayatra to the project site on February 8, 2001 asking the Government to execute the project.

BJP's charge

After coming to power, the Government remains silent on the project and instead pays much attention to the Polavaram project, alleges district BJP president P. Sugunakar Rao.

"If Inchampalli is constructed on the river, the flow to the Polavaram project will be reduced. Because of it, the Government is neglecting the project,'' he has charged.

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Inchampalli back in limelight

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