World’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project inaugurated in Telangana
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, June 21
The world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project—Kaleshwaram—which is built across the Godavari river was inaugurated by Telangana Governor ELS Narasimhan at Medigadda in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Friday.
The multi-purpose lift irrigation project will begin pumping water from July and will help meet the irrigation, industrial and drinking water requirements of 70 per cent of the districts in Telangana.
The dignitaries present at the event included Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao besides Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are also set to benefit from the project.
The Telangana government has announced: "Water from the Godavari at Medigadda, which is about 100 metres above sea-level, will be lifted in six stages and supplied to the Kondapochamma Sagar, which is at a height of 618 metres.”
This means that water from the Godavari will be lifted to a height of half a kilometre—against gravity.
Chief Minister Rao’s dream project materialised after Telangana and Maharashtra entered into an agreement over water sharing in March 2016.
The project has been built over three years and includes three barrages, 19 reservoirs and 20 lifts. It has a storage capacity of 141 TMC (thousand million cubic feet).
The project comprises a water supply system spread over 1,832 km, a gravity canal spanning 1,531 km and 203 km of tunnels.
As much as 4,993 MW of electricity would be required to fill up the 19 reservoirs which have a capacity of 141 TMC. It is from here that the water will flow into the canals.
The opposition has accused the Telangana Rashtriya Samithi of spending Rs 1 lakh crore on the project, while the expenditure on the project was slated to be Rs 38,000 crore under the united Andhra Pradesh.
