Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday went on whirlwind tour of sites of ongoing projects including the prestigious Kaleshwaram project, tipped to become the lifeline of over a dozen districts in the State, to ensure that the official machinery and executing agencies are sticking to the time lines given to them. He was insistent that the project should be completed on time, preferably by June next year.
Mr. Rao visited the project sites on Thursday and interacted with the officials, contractors concerned on the progress of the work.
Starting off from Tupakulagudem barrage, he inspected ongoing work on construction of barrages at Medigadda and Annaram besides the pump house work at Kannepalli and Siripuram.
The Chief Minister also visited Sundilla, Golivada and other places after a brief halt for lunch at Siripuram.
The State Government is taking all measures to transform the State on the irrigation front by redesigning projects and accordingly has taken up Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project across the Godavari at Medigadda near Kaleshwaram temple shrine, said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
The Chief Minister along with his Cabinet colleagues, MPs, MLAs, and irrigation officials was on a whirlwind heli-hopping tour of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Thursday -- from Tupakulagudem barrage work in Eturunagaram mandal of Jayashankar-Bhupalapalli district.
He inspected the Medigadda barrage, Kannepalli pump house, Annaram barrage, Sundilla barrage, Sirupuram and Goliwada pump houses in Peddapalli district.
Interacting with the officials, the Chief Minister inspected the progress of the work and inquired in detail about their progress at all sites with officials and inspected the photo exhibition over the progress of work.
Stating that the State Government is overcoming all hurdles and intensified the execution of the project at all the places on a war-footing by working round the clock in three shifts for the construction of barrages pump houses and canals, he assured all the assistance from the government for the executing agency for the early completion of the project to provide irrigation sources to farmers.
Recollecting the incident of breaching of Mid Manair Dam, he instructed the officials to ensure that the barrages are constructed with utmost care and quality.
He instructed the officials to ensure that Medigadda barrage, measuring 1.63 km distance, to store 16.17 tmcs of water, is constructed to ensure that it could sustain heavy floods.
He also appreciated Transco officials for providing adequate power supply to the lift schemes at the barrages by strengthening the power supply with additional sub-stations, power lines and transformers.
The Chief Minister said that the integrated Karimnagar district would transformed on par with Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh with the availability of water round-the-year with Kaleshwaram and other existing projects.
It may be recalled that the Chief Minister laid foundation stone for Kaleshwaram project on May 2, 2016, at Medigadda, after offering prayers at Kaleshwaram temple shrine.
As part of Kaleshwaram project, three barrages are coming up in Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla to store over 28 tmcs of water together; utilise around 180 tmcs of water to provide irrigation sources to 18.25 lakh acres covering 13 districts; and also stabilise another 11.8 lakh acres of SRSP ayacut. The project requires 4,500 MWs of power for lifting of water from various pump houses.
Water from Sundilla barrage would be lifted to the Sripada Yellampalli Project (SYP) -- and from SYP to Mid Manair Dam (MMD) -- which would act as balancing reservoir for lifting of water to the SRSP.
Ministers T. Harish Rao and Etala Rajender, MPs B. Vinod Kumar and Balka Suman, Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, DGP Mahender Reddy and others accompanied the Chief Minister.
