Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman and former Member of Parliament B. Vinod Kumar said the Mid Manair Dam (Sri Raja Rajeshwara) reservoir has emerged as water junction for the SRSP and Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) to provide irrigation facilities to the entire State.
Mr. Vinod Kumar along with MLC Naradasu Laxman Rao, Choppadandi legislator Sunke Ravishankar, ZP chairperson K. Vijaya, IDC chairman Eda Shankar Reddy and others visited the MMD project on Thursday. He inspected the project and storage of the water being lifted from the KLIP and performed puja.
Speaking on the occasion, the Planning Board vice-chairman ridiculed the Opposition for making a hue and cry over the reported seepages to the MMD in the month of August this year.
“Any new earth dam will not be filled at one go. It will be done in a phased manner. Last year, 5 to 6 tmc of water was stored in the MMD, and this year they filled 15 tmc of water by lifting water from KLIP,” he said.
However, the irrigation authorities released water into the LMD reservoir downstream as they noticed some loose soil and development of slush at the left side of the dam following an old rivulet in the dam, he said, and maintained that there was no seepage from the dam.
The authorities roped in experts from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, geologists from the Electricity Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Soil Resistivity Testing (SRT), New Delhi, besides retired irrigation experts, and took up restoration work on a war-footing, he said. After conducting piezometer and other tests of the earth dam, they filled the MMD with 15 tmc of water, he said, and added that they would further fill the project few more TMCs of water after waiting for some time.
“We are happy to announce that a small technical problem is solved within short duration by the experts of the country, and filled the MMD with 15 tmc of water,” he said. He hoped that the authorities would fill the MMD with 20 tmc of water during this season and fill it entirely with 25.975 tmc of water during the next year.
Mr. Vinod Kumar said that the Congress during the YSR regime completed only earthwork for the MMD and there was no concrete work done during its eight-year regime. The MMD was completed only after TRS attained power. The MMD and LMD would provide abundant water for irrigation to Karimnagar and Warangal districts, he said, and added that the MMD would act as junction for the KLIP to lift water to Medak, Ranga Reddy and Nizamabad districts.
