At a time when the Telanganan government is struggling to ground Dindi Lift Irrigation Project (DLIP) due to stiff opposition from Palamuru leaders — over drawing of water from Srisailam through Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Project (PRLIP) — the Telangana Engineering Forum Convenor D. Lakshminarayana came up with an alternate plan to materialise it.
After consulting a wide range of expert irrigation engineers across Telangana, Mr. Lakshminarayana suggested that the government draw water from Puttamgandi Lift Irrigation Project by pressing the remaining two pumps, which remained non-functional, into operation. The DLIP needs 30 TMCFT per annum while these two pumps can pump 36 TMCFT of water ever year.
Mr. Lakshminarayana suggested that the government bring all the five pumps at Puttamgandi Lift Irrigation Project (PLIIP) into operation to supply water to DLIP. The State government installed five pumps at Puttamgandi in 2004 to draw water from Nagarjunasagar to supply water to SLBC High Level Canal as temporary measure till the SLBC Tunnel project is completed, from where water can be supplied to High Level Canal by gravity. Only three of five pumps were brought into functioning, but only two were working currently since one of them remained as spare.
Water from one of the pumps is being supplied to High Level Canal and another to Hyderabad. Each of three phases of Krishna, which is meant to supply water for drinking water needs of Hyderabad, requires just 150 cusecs of water everyday while each pump supplies 600 cusecs of water in 24 hours time.
Due to alleged irregularities in the construction of Puttamgandi, the poor quality of cistern build at Puttamgandi is not supporting all the five pumps. He urged the government to strengthen the cistern to bring all the five pumps into operation which would be sufficient enough to supply water to all the three phases of Krishna to the State capital and also DLIP.
