Expressed pleasure at the Centre for giving its final nod of environmental clearance for Kaleshwaram, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao today said that with this all hurdles of the project were cleared. The minister said that the final clearance is the slap on the opposition which has been coming in the way of the projects by moving courts with false cases. Despite opposition hurdles we made persistent efforts and bagged all the clearances including first state environment, hydrological, forest and others he claimed. The minister who is in Delhi made persistent efforts and got the final nod from the centre for the prestigious project that will cater to irrigation needs in 8 districts of North Telangana and can make use of 8182 acres of forest land for the works. The Centre convinced on the report by the state government which offered Rs 723 cr to forest department for making use its land for the project works.
Kaleshwarama project is a focal point in Telangana and will rewrite history in the irrigation sector by lifting waters from Godavari to other districts in its vicinity Harish Rao said. Efforts to make ample use of Godavari waters will be true in near future he felt. The project will irrigate 18.25 lakh acres and stabilize another 18.82 lakh acres by lifting Medigadda waters to shit to Annaram, Sundilla barrages and others besides storing 142 tmc Godavari waters to be used for future needs. First plan is to irrigate two crops during shortfall of rains and second plan is to irrigate 8.2 lakh acres in SRSP and LMD ayacut tail end crops.
In June 2018, Kaleshwaram and Mid Maner will be linked up as per plan and Rs 1000 cr sanctioned for this to irrigate 16 lakh acres for two crops under SRSP. A total of Rs 80,500 cr estimated for the Kaleshwaram project to help irrigate crops in 13 districts. Redesigning measures by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao helped to increase storage capacity to 142 tmc through Kaleshwaram project while Pranahitha-Chevella project proposal was for 16.43 tmc he added. (NSS