Three pump houses of the Sita Rama Lift Irrigation Project will be inaugurated by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on August 15 and their trial run will be conducted on Sunday (August 11), Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N. Uttam Kumar Reddy stated here on Saturday.
After holding a meeting with the officials of Irrigation and other departments, he said a public meeting will be organised after the inauguration of pump houses. The State government had already submitted the Detailed Project Report and other clearances secured by the project so far to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB).
Stating that the project seeks to utilise 67 tmcft of water for stabilising 3.45 lakh acres of Nagarjunasagar tail-end ayacut and creating irrigation potential to another 3.29 lakh acres afresh (a total of 6.74 lakh acres), in Khammam, Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Mahabubabad districts, the minister said the process of tenders for the construction of distributaries was also speeded up. The government had given its approval for about 3,000 acres of land acquisition needed for Packages 1 and 2 and efforts were being made to resolve the pending cases in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Supreme Court. The government was taking up the matter with the Centre, particularly the Minister of Environment and Forests.
The Minister instructed the irrigation authorities to take up the matter of canal works coming across the railway crossings at two places of the main canal with the Railways – at 34.561 km and 37.551 km as they could hinder the progress of work. He reviewed the arrangement being made for the trial run and commissioning of the three pump houses with Secretary (Irrigation) Rahul Bojja, Special Secretary Prashanth J. Patil, Engineer-in-Chief G. Anil Kumar, Deputy ENC K. Srinivas and others.
