In his first visit taken up 19 months after laying the foundation stone on May 2 last year, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao examined the progress of works on various components of the Kaleshwaram irrigation project being carried out at several places in North Telangana on Thursday and Friday and expressed satisfaction.
Accompanied by a few of his Cabinet colleagues, including Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao and Finance Minister E. Rajender, and top brass of officials such as Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, Director-General of Police M. Mahender Reddy, and Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) S. K. Joshi, the Chief Minister physically examined key components of the project such as Medigadda and Annaram barrages and pump-houses and made aerial survey of other works.
He also examined the works pertaining to the Kanthanapally project at Thupakulagudem barrage site in Jayashankar Bhupalapally district and the first phase works of Telangana Super Thermal Power Project being set up by National Thermal Power Corporation at Ramagundam as part of his visit. The Chief Minister will review the progress of Kaleshwaram works at a meeting to be held here on Saturday.
At the Thupakulagudem site, irrigation officials explained to the Chief Minister that about 6,000 cusecs of flow was there in the Godavari and the construction of coffer dam was completed for a length of 1,132 metres and another 150 metres would be completed soon.
Instructions to DGP
He instructed the DGP to be in constant touch with the police authorities of neighbouring States over the security aspects at the site. The DGP explained that a strict vigil was being maintained at all work sites, including use of drone cameras.
Citing the breach of earthen dam of the Mid Manair Reservoir due to heavy rains last year, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the irrigation authorities and work agencies to take higher care on the quality of works and also take up strong flood banks at the main barrages – Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. He told the officials to complete the work on the pump-houses before the commencement of the next monsoon season.
He enquired about the progress of works at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages and their pump-houses at Kannepalli, Siripuram and Golivada in detail. He wanted the officials to keep the gates of barrages and motors of pump-houses ready at the sites before the completion of barrage works.
The Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over power supply to pump-houses as chairman and managing director of TS-Transco D. Prabhakar explained that works on the dedicated transmission lines and sub-stations at all sites would be completed by March-end next.
Sigh of relief
Meanwhile, the police authorities heaved a sigh of relief with the incident-free conclusion of the Chief Minister's visit as it was in the Maoist-infested areas and the Medigadda barrage site is only about 20 km away from the site of encounter in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, where seven Maoists were killed on Wednesday.
