The Krishna River Management Board is gearing up for installing telemetric devices that will enable monitoring of the release of water from important projects on a real time basis.
The Board has mooted the idea following repeated complaints of excess drawal of water by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The devices would initially be installed at Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects and the facility would be extended to all other projects in phases.
KRMB member secretary Sameer Chatterjee, accompanied by senior officials, inspected the two project sites recently to study the feasibility of installing the telemetric devices. The devices would be connected to a central point through satellite and would enable the board to remotely assess the release of water from major projects at any given point of time.
Mr. Chatterjee said the Andhra Pradesh government came forward to allot Rs. 2.5 crore required for installing the devices at the two projects and the Telangana government had agreed to reimburse its share of the total project cost in the due course.
“We are waiting for the release of money. We will opt for e-tendering process and finalise the bids once the money is credited into our account,” Mr. Chatterjee told The Hindu .
The Telangana government has mooted a proposal for joint supervision of Krishna water release from crucial locations to prevent the two States from accusing one another of resorting to excess usage of water. The development comes after the board had expressed displeasure over the two States utilising water according to their wish without following the decisions taken at the meeting of the board.
“Installation of telemetric devices will minimise the scope for discrepancies and mismatches in the reports submitted by the two States from time to time on the utilisation of water,” he said.
