A major hurdle in the progress of the Kaleshwaram Irrigation Project has been cleared with the Central Water Commission (CWC) giving its approval for inter-state clearance for it following the compliance of required aspects.
Officials of the Irrigation Department termed the development a major step forward in the State government’s plans to carry Godvari water from Medigadda at least till the Sriramsagar project by the next kharif season through Annaram, Sundilla and Yellampally barrages and pump houses.
They attributed the inter-state clearance to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao's diplomacy with the Maharashtra Government, as part of which an agreement was signed by Chief Ministers of the two States in August last year with consent on the height of Medigadda barrage minimising the area of submergence to the least possible extent. They pointed out that the initially planned Pranahitha-Chevella project had not made headway due to inter-state aspects itself as the Maharashtra government was against large extent of submergence.
“After the setback in the form of National Green Tribunal interim order during the first week of October directing the State government to stop the project works in the absence of forest and environmental clearances, the last 10 days have been very eventful for Kaleshwaram. The project has secured first-stage clearance for diversion of over 3,168 hectares’ forest land for project works, got hydrological clearance from CWC and the Centre’s view stating that it’s only a modification of the initially conceived project and not the new one and now the inter-state clearance”, an elated senior official of the Irrigation Department said.
The officials stated that the Maharashtra Government had also given its no-objection for diversion of 160 TMC ft water to the project. Based on the CWC suggestion to utilise such huge quantity of water through lift, the State Government has increased the capacity of storage (reservoirs) from just 11 TMC ft in the original design of Pranahitha-Chevella to 147 TMC ft in the redesigned Kaleshwaram Project, the officials explained. In a communication related to the latest clearance issued on Friday, Director (Inter State Matters-1) of CWC B. P. Pandey stated that “keeping in view the compliances to the various points, there are no further comments”.
