The country’s biggest irrigation project, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, in Telangana which holds several national and world records will start receiving water from the Godavari River from the first week of August. The Rs 80,000-crore project will create history in a state where the second-highest number of farmers commits suicide after Vidarbha in Maharashtra due to failed monsoons and lack of water for irrigation. The Kaleshwaram project evisages to irrigate 18 lakh acres in 13 districts and stabilise another 17 lakh acres in another seven districts of Telangana. It will also provide drinking water to several towns and cities, especially Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and water for industries in many districts. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is seeking Rs 20,000 crore from the Centre for the project.
Through this project, Telangana will harness water at the confluence of three rivers with Godavari by constructing a barrage at Medigadda in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district and reverse pump the water into the main Godavari River and divert it into a huge and complex system of reservoirs, water tunnels, pipelines and canals. The project had to be built at such a size and scale because while the Godavari flows at 100 metres above mean sea level (MSL), Telangana region is located at 300 to 650 metres above MSL.
The project is all set to create a world record in the first week of August when the gigantic pumps with a capacity of 139 MW each will start lifting 2 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water per day.
Read more of this in a report by Sreenivas Janyala published in The Indian Express...
