Newly appointed Tungabhadra Command Area Development Authority (T-CADA) chairman A. Vasanth Kumar said that his Authority would study and come up with a comprehensive report with recommendations to address the issue of huge quantity of silt accumulated in Tungabhadra Reservoir near Hosepte.
After assuming power on Thursday at T-CADA head office in Munirabad, Koppal district, he was addressing a media conference at Reporters’ Guild here on Friday.
“We will consult farmers, people’s representatives and technical experts and submit a comprehensive report to Government with our own recommendations. It is a gigantic challenge to remove as much as 32 tmcft sludge accumulated in Tungabhadra Dam. There are number of proposals to address the issue including increasing the height of the dam, construction of parallel canal and construction of balance reservoir and so on,” he said.
The government had already called a global tender for minutely studying the issue and submit a feasibility report to deal with the slurry, he added.
Mr. Vasanth Kumar, however, did not specifically clarify, why his Authority intended to conduct another study while the state government had already called global tender for the same purpose.
Tail-end crisis:
Expressing concerns water-shortage crisis that erupted every year at the tail-end of Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal (TLBC), Mr. Vasanth Kumar said that providing sufficient water for irrigation to tail-end areas in Raichur and Manvi taluks was among his top priorities.
“Lakhs of acres of lands at lower reaches of TLBC, particularly have been facing severe shortage of water. I have, soon after taking charge, spoken to concerned officials at the Department of Water Resources including Chief Engineer, to consistently maintain water gauges at different points of the main canal during water-flowing period, as determined by Tungabhadra Irrigation Consultative Committee (ICC),” he said.
He added that T-CADA had planned to form around 850 farmers’ cooperatives having the farmers of both upper and lower reaches to address the irrigation related issues through increased people’s participation.
Mr. Vasanth Kumar said that of the planned 7365 kms anicut roads planned in the command area, 2000 kms were completed. “We will shortly take measures to develop the rest”, he said.
Party leaders G. Basavaraj Reddy, Amaregowda Hanchinal, Umesh Baligar and others were present.
