A forum of retired engineers has demanded captive power plants to meet power requirement of lift irrigation schemes in Telangana and setting up of a corporation to administer them.
The participants who met under the banner of Telangana Resource Centre here on Sunday felt the generation from the plants which was in excess of the needs of lift irrigation schemes could be diverted to the grid on commercial basis.
The meeting noted that the demand for lift irrigation in the State was 8,500 MW, of which 7,150 MW was required for Telangana alone.
Raising the issue, a retired superintending engineer of AP GENCO K. Penta Reddy said lifts were the only answer to the requirements of irrigation in Telangana as the rivers were at a lower level and the ayacut on uplands. The lifts were also designed for tall heights as in the case of Kalwakurthy scheme which was 117 metres high.
Sufficient
He also said that the available generation was sufficient for all the schemes as individual pumpsets will not be functional.
A retired SE of irrigation M. Ramakrishna Reddy said justice would be done to Mahbubnagar from Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme on Tungabhadra river only when a lift irrigation was constructed at Sunkesula barrage.
It was unfortunate that a project existed at Sunkesula but went unused due to lack of water.
The farmers of RDS got only 6.88 tmcft water though the allocation was 15.7 tmcft.
On the other hand, the release into KC canal was 60 tmcft, he added.
Inevitable
Another retired engineer of irrigation M. Shyam Prasad said lift irrigation schemes were inevitable to Telangana because flow of river water to fields by gravity was ruled out in the region.
The exceptions were Jurala and Pakal projects.
