Sitarama project progresses at snail’s pace

Only 374 acres out of 4,445 acres required has been acquired so far

Rajanna-Sircilla (Telangana): Minister for Irrigation T Harish Rao listening to local legislator Ch Ramesh Babu at a public meeting in Vemulawada temple town in Rajanna-Sircilla district on Tuesday. Photo: By arrangement

Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao has expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of work on the Sitarama Lift Irrigation Project in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district and directed the officials concerned to submit an action plan on the execution of remaining work.

Reviewing the project work at a meeting here on Friday, he asked the officials to speed up the work and send proposals for acquisition of 4,000 acres of forest land for the project to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF) within a week. He also wanted the officials to prepare proposals for 1,000 acres out of it falling in the eco-sensitive zone and send them to the Centre within 10 days.

Stating that the Centre had already given first-stage forest clearance to the project, the Minister suggested appointing a special officer in Delhi to pursue the forest and other clearances. The project intended to irrigate 6.74 lakh acres including creating new irrigation potential of 3,28,853 acres and stabilising another 3,45,534 acres requires a total of 4,445 acres land to be acquired. However, only 374 acres of it has been acquired so far.

Speaking to District Collectors of Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Khammam and Jagitial districts Rajiv Hanumanthu, Lokesh Kumar and A. Sharath, respectively, from the meeting over phone, Mr. Harish Rao said that 4,900 acres of land had already been identified in Kothagudem and Jagitial districts for compensatory afforestation in lieu of about 4,000 acres of forest land being acquired for the project. The Minister directed the Jagitial Collector to speed up transfer of alternative land to the Forest Department.

Project officials explained to the Minister that out of the total of eight packages work was grounded in first three packages so far. Among the rest, singing of agreements with contract agencies was completed in case of packages 4 to 7 and the process was in progress in case of package 8.

Regarding pump houses, the officials stated that work on only one of the five pump houses was grounded so far. Work on another pump house was expected to be grounded soon. The Minister directed Chief Engineer of Central Designs Organisation A. Narender Reddy to complete the pending designs of electromechanical and civil works.

Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, Chief Engineer of Sitaram Project V. Sudhakar and others attended.