HYDERABAD: A five-member team of irrigation engineers from Maharashtra will visit Telangana for three days from February 13 to study the Mission Kakatiya programme being implemented by the State government for revival of minor irrigation tanks and chain-link tank system.
The visiting team will comprise a Chief Engineer, two superintending engineers and two executive engineers of the Water Resources Department of the Maharashtra government. Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao has directed the officials to make necessary arrangements for the field visit of the Maharashtra engineers’ team.
TN team visit put off
The State Government has already received information from Tamil Nadu Government that a team from there would come to Telangana for studying the programme taken up for revival of traditional water bodies. Officials stated that Tamil Nadu had decided to depute a team following a recommendation by noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan.
However, the death of then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and political developments that followed it forced the Tamil Nadu team’s visit to be rescheduled.
Chief Engineer of Minor Irrigation B. Nagender Rao stated that under the programme, restoration of 46,531 minor irrigation tanks was taken up in a phased manner.
Third of target reached
In the first two phases taken up during the last two years, some 11,000 tanks were restored. Revival of a total of 17,000 tanks was sanctioned by the government in the two phases at an estimated cost of ₹5,700 crore.
He explained that about ₹1,800 crore was spent for the purpose already and out of the target to bring about 15 lakh acres under tank irrigation in the first two phases, some 5 lakh acres localisation was already done. In the first phase 4.74 crore cubic meters of silt was removed from tanks surface, while 8.27 crore cubic meters silt was removed in the second phase, so far, the Chief Engineer added.
