A meeting of the International Executive Council, the highest decision making body of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), at Saskatoon in Canada last month has accepted Telangana government’s nomination of Sadarmatt anicut across river Godavari in Nirmal district and Pedda Cheruvu in Kamareddy district in the ICID Register of Heritage Irrigation Structures.
The plaques presented by the council for the two over-century-old irrigation facilities were received by the Member Secretary, Indian National Committee on Surface Water as Indian representative at the meeting. The chairman of the committee has invited irrigation officials from Telangana to take them in New Delhi soon.
Sadarmatt anicut
The HIS award is a deserving recognition to this irrigation facility which has provided precious water for paddy crops in its designed ayacut of 13,100 acres in present day Khanapur and Kadem mandals since its construction in 1891-92. It has also served as a picnic spot for people from an area which may not be as vast its catchment area of nearly 40,000 sq miles but is spread over old undivided Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts.
The anicut, which is English word for Telugu’s ana-katta , meaning a rainfall bund, was built by Nawab Ikbal-ud-Dowla who bore the tile of Vicar-ul-Umrah Bahadur in 1891-92 about 50 km downstream of the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) and is chiefly fed by Sawrnavagu stream after the construction of SRSP. C.E. Wilkinson was the Taluqdar then and J.J.
Ottley was the engineer and Khanapur was a jagir of the Nawabs during the rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Sadarmatt bund is 437.4 m long on its left flank and 23.8 m on its right flank. The left canal is 21.5 km long while the right canal is 10 km and the distributory is 12 km in length irrigating 5,700 acres, 3,400 acres and 4,000 acres respectively.
The maximum flood discharge at the anicut is 7.76 lakh cusecs. Over 4 tmc ft of water is utilised.
Pedda Cheruvu
The Pedda Cheruvu (big tank in Telugu) located on the outskirts of this district headquarters town is spread over an area of 618 acres and was built in 1897 during the rule of Mir Mahaboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad State. It has a 1.8-km-long tank bund and 145-metre weir and three sluices. It’s catchment area is spread over 68.97 sq. km. and total flood flow is 8,860 cusecs.
With a capacity of 0.175 tmcft it provides water for irrigation to over 900 acres in Kamareddy, Sarampally, Narsampally and old Rajampet.
It also provides drinking water for residents of the area. Womenfolk play Bathukamma during the Navaratrotsavalu on its bund and immerse them in its waters. It is a picnic spot for residents of the area who come to its bund for relaxation and have a panoramic view of nature. Consequently, the Government wanted to develop it as a tourist spot by creating the necessary infrastructure.
Moreover, this tank was taken up under the second round of Mission Kakatiya to be developed as a mini tank bund with an estimated outlay of ₹ 6.6 crore. Eighty per cent of work is done and the remaining will be completed very soon, according to K. Bansilal, Executive Engineer (Irrigation), Kamareddy.
