Regumanagadda (Mahabubnagar Dt), April 23: Arrangements are finally being made to provide Krishna water from the foreshores of Srisailam reservoir to Mahabubnagar district from India’s second biggest lift irrigation scheme – Kalwakurthy.
A project taken up under the Jalayagnam programme at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,990 crore, water supply from Kalwakurthy will begin in June to serve irrigated dry crops like sunflower and groundnut spread over an ayacut of 13,000 acres.
Perennial problem
This, indeed, is a minuscule area, compared to 3.4 lakh acres envisaged to be irrigated but it does signal a new beginning for the district which has not secured its reasonable quota from the river. The project is seen as an answer to the criticism that Mahabubnagar continues to remain parched even with a perennial river like the Krishna flowing through its vast territory.
Water scarcity for crops and for drinking purpose is an acute problem which the district faces.
As the government has set June as the deadline to extend at least partial benefit to farmers who have waited for Kalwakurthy for decades, the activity at the desolate hills here, where the intake structure and other head works are located overlooking the Srisailam reservoir, reached a feverish pitch with the roar of machines and bull-dozers.
Major components of Kalwakurthy like the approach channel from the Srisailam reservoir, the surge pool which will receive the drawn water, and the pump-house of the first lift have almost been completed and a row of five massive pipelines laid. P. N. Goverdhan Reddy, the project’s executive engineer, said AP Transco would charge the sub-station specially built for the project. The government has spent a huge sum of Rs 1,801 crore to give Kalwakurthy its present shape.
The project will ultimately have two more lifts at different points of the canal which will flow for a length of 250 km through pipelines and by gravitation for some stretches.
Work is also on at a brisk pace on the four reservoirs planned for the project at Yelluru, Singotam, Jonnalaboguda and Gudipallygatttu.
Ambitious scheme
The river water will be lifted to a height of 894 ft under the three lifts (1,500 ft under Devadula lift scheme). On completion in 2012, Kalwakurthy will provide water to the entire planned ayacut in Kollapur, Nagarkurnool, Atchampet, Jadcherla, Wanaparthy and Kalwakurthy mandals, and meet the drinking water needs of 303 villages.
–Agencies