HYDERABAD: When Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dedicates Bhakta Ramadasu Lift Irrigation Scheme (BRLIS) in Khammam district to people on January 31, it will not only be known for being completed in flat 11 months but will also become the first project to be completed as part of the Telangana Government’s redesigning of new irrigation systems.
The project was conceived to avoid delay in irrigating nearly 59,000 acres of land, the tail-end extent which was originally planned to be given water under SRSP Stage-II, mostly in Palair constituency in Khammam district, including over 1,200 acres in Dornakal constituency of the neighbouring Mahabubabad district. Initially, the ayacut was envisaged under distributary main (DBM)-60 of SRSP Stage-II.
Thanksgiving
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Besides, inauguration of the project will be a thanksgiving gesture by the State Government (Chief Minister) to the people of Palair, who have elected Roads & Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao with a thumping majority in the by-election held in May last year.
“I am happy to be able to keep the by-election promise of providing irrigation to the parched lands of Palair at the earliest. The Government also wants to complete all irrigation projects in time and gift them to people who have given a massive mandate to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the General Elections and the subsequent ones,” Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao stated.
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Bhakta Ramadasu project also holds significance for utilising some components (accessories), which otherwise were lying idle for several years now, belonging to Indira Sagar Lift Irrigation Scheme (ISRLIS) and Rajiv Dummugudem Lift Irrigation Scheme (RDLIS). The schemes are now shelved by the government due to serious environmental and other issues.
The Chief Minister has laid foundation for BRLIS works on February 16 last year with the target to complete it by March-end this year. However, the trial run of the first pump was successfully completed with discharge of 300 cusecs water on January 23. The second pump is scheduled to be test-run in the first week of February.
Director of Megha Engineering, which executed the project, P.V. Krishna Reddy stated that BRLIS would become a milestone for their company since they have completed it two months in advance of the deadline, with the support of the State Government.
Earlier, the company had executed Pattiseema lift irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh in 12 months, he noted.