Telangana has reiterated its stand on the proposal of interlinking of Godavari and Cauvery rivers one more time that there is a need to assess the availability of water in Godavari in excess of the allocations made to riparian States by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) and how much of the surplus water could be utilised.
Telangana Irrigation Department authorities said this at a meeting convened by the National Water Development Authority (NWDA) in New Delhi on Friday and was attended by officials of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry besides Telangana. The officials suggested the NWDA to assess the availability of surplus water after the river enters AP.
According to information reaching here, the AP authrities proposed that the Godavari-Cauvery link could be taken up from Polavaram project and AP had no objections in the diversion of surplus water to the States outside the basin after meeting the needs in the scarcity (water deficient) areas of the State.
The officials of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were understood to have stated that they had no objection in taking up any type of diversion scheme as their ultimate need was water. However, the authorities of Karnataka wanted to know the direct benefit their State would get from the interlinking and how it would help meet the needs of scarcity areas of Karnataka. They stated that they would be in a position to give an opinion only after getting clarity on their doubts.
The NWDA officials said at the meeting that the focus of the meeting was on the diversion of 237 tmc ft surplus water and the States that would benefit from the project would have to bear 40% of the expenditure and the Centre would bear the remaining funds, as being proposed by the Centre for national projects to be taken up in future.
Land acquisition required for the project, the existing projects that could be linked to create the Godavari-Cauvery link, availability of alternative link routes and others were discussed at the meeting. The NWDA officials stated that the meeting was organised not to take any decisions but only to seek opinion of the participating States and some key decisions could be taken at the next meeting.
