PRIDE OF PLACE: Minister for Major Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah shows Sikkim Chief Minister Pavan Kumar Chamling photographs of the ongoing irrigation projects in the State, in Hyderabad on Sunday. — PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: The Government has finally issued administrative sanction to two mega projects of Telangana -- Pranahita-Chevella and Dummagudem-Nagarjunasagar Tailpond (DNT) -- and cleared an outlay of Rs. 28,477 crores for both. This is the first time that such sanction covering a large quantity of water and outlay in a single go has been given.

The projects will use 325 tmcft of surplus waters of the Godavari by direct tapping or diversion. Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah, at a press conference here on Sunday, said that plans were afoot to call tenders soon to ground the works. Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy signed files for the sanction shortly before leaving for the US.

Survey completed

He said the Pranahita project would be taken up at a cost of Rs. 18,000 crores to use 160 tmcft to be diverted from Pranahita river to Yellampalli project. Of this, 80 tmcft would be used to irrigate 12.2 lakh acres in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Nalgonda, and Ranga Reddy districts. Another 80 tmcft would be utilised to stabilise the ayacut and meet drinking and industrial needs, including that of the city.

The project survey has been completed by the Water and Power Consultancy Services.

A 20 tmcft reservoir would be built at the source on the Pranahita and nearly 20 tanks in the districts linked, from Mote to Ibrahimpatnam, for providing the needed infrastructure.

The DNT project (cost Rs. 10,477 crores) would divert 165 tmcft of the Godavari water from Dummagudem into the Krishna by way of inter-basin transfer. Of this, 41.4 tmcft would be used to supplement the Nagarjunasagar Left Canal. He said details were being worked to use the rest of the water.

Modernisation works of the Godavari delta (Rs. 1,627 crores), Krishna delta (Rs. 1,501 crores), and Penna delta (Rs. 554 crores) would be grounded shortly with assistance from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Works of the Nagarjunasagar canal network, for which the World Bank has approved Rs. 2,250 crores aid, would also be commenced soon. Similarly, the Thungabhadra High Level Canal (Rs. 446 crores) and Nizamsagar (Rs. 398 crores) would be modernised.

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