Upper Krishna Project: Will ₹10,000 crore be enough?

Phase one of Upper Krishna Project was completed in 2005 with the construction of a reservoir at Almatti.

Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s announcement on earmarking ₹10,000 crore for the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) III works has been both welcomed with enthusiasm and viewed with scepticism on the source and adequacy of funding.

While several leaders, including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, have already raised technical points about the post-Budget announcement, the authorities too are in a state of confusion. Experts believe that at least ₹50,000 crore is required to complete the work.

While the first phase was completed in 2005 with the construction of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Reservoir at Almatti, the works taken up under second phase of the project are nearing completion. In the third phase, a lot needs to be done to bring 5.3 lakh hectares of farmland under irrigation. It involves the utilisation of 130 tmcft of water out of the 177 tmcft allocated to Karnataka from Krishna river.

The award by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal (KWDT) is yet to be notified by the Centre. However, the State government has already been permitted by the Supreme Court to raise the height of the dam at Almatti from 519.6 m to 524.256 m. Also, a major portion of work on the construction of canals was done when Mr. Patil was Minister, and only a network of smaller canals need to be built after the gazette notification.

Relief and rehab

But the biggest challenge is providing relief and rehabilitation to the residents of over 20 villages that are expected to get submerged when the height of the dam is raised. The government needs to acquire 1,33,867 acres of land, and only 18,039 acres has been acquired so far. The third phase of UKP is estimated to cost around ₹51,148 crore, of which a major portion — ₹30,143 crore — is for land acquisition. The remaining funds are for construction work. Around 33 lift irrigation projects come under UKP, and to operate them some 540 MW of power is required.

Although there have been efforts from Karnataka to get it declared a “national project” and get funding from the Centre, they have not succeeded so far.

Krishna Kolhar Kulkarni, a veteran irrigation activist, said ₹10,000 crore would not be adequate for the project and at least ₹50,000 crore would be required. He said the only way to complete the project within three years was to stop populists schemes that eye vote banks. “This is the only major irrigation project left to be completed in Karnataka. It needs to be prioritised,” he said.

A senior official of the Irrigation Department said the ₹10,000 crore announced was in addition to the ₹9,000 crore already allocated in the Budget to Krishna basin projects. “The allocation of ₹19,000 is perhaps the highest,” he said. However, he said he was unaware of how money would be generated for this work. “That is left to the Finance Department,” he said.

The Upper Krishna Project was started in May 1964 to provide irrigation to districts of north Karnataka, mainly Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Kalaburagi and Raichur.