HYDERABAD
The Telangana government has requested the Chairman of the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) to obtain complete details of the Polavaram (Godavari)-Banakacherla (Krishna) link project proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government at the earliest.
In his letter to the GRMB Chairman, Engineer-in-Chief of the Irrigation Department G. Anil Kumar stated that they learnt about the proposed projects through reports in leading newspapers and enclosed a few newspaper clippings including that of The Hindu about the presentation given by A.P. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on the project. (The reports attached were published on December 30 and 31 last, January 2 and 3).
According to a preliminary report prepared by the A.P. government the proposed Polavaram (Godavari)-Banakacherla (Krishna) link project is designed to provide drinking water to about 80 lakh people and irrigate new ayacut of over 7.41 lakh acres and stabilise another 22.59 lakh acres of existing ayacut under different projects en route and also to provide 20 tmc ft water to meeting needs of the industrial sector.
The preliminary cost of the project is estimated at about ₹80,112 crore with a plan to divert Godavari water up to 120 days year as the river Godavari records surplus flows for 90 to 120 days. It is also proposed to have transit balancing (storage) reservoirs for a capacity of about 150 tmc ft to 200 tmc ft.
The report states that there was no need for any large-scale land acquisition and implementing relief and rehabilitation measures as the Bollapalle hill range in Palnadu district could be utilised as the natural balancing online reservoir to store water of about 150 tmc ft by closing four small gaps in between the hills. It has also mentioned that about 855.69 tmc ft water was drawn from Srisailam reservoir through Pothireddypadu head regulator towards Banakacherla cross regulator between 2010 and 2019.
Further, the report states that at 2 tmc ft per day about 243 tmc ft water could be diverted from Polavaram to Banakacherla to meet the needs in the Rayalaseema region.
Published – January 10, 2025 08:39 pm IST