In a significant development, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) in Telangana, the nation’s biggest irrigation endeavour, is expected to receive water from the Godavari River in the first week of August, according to The Indian Express.
Expected to irrigate 18 lakh acres across 13 districts, this project is on the cusp of breaking all sorts of records. For starters, the motors and pump houses of this project are designed to lift up to 3 thousand million cubic feet (tmfct) of water per day, which is reportedly a world record.
Costing the state exchequer Rs 80,000 crore, this project is expected to alleviate the miseries of farmers, who have long suffered in times of drought. Telangana ranks after Maharashtra as the state with the highest number of farmer suicides. The development comes as good news even for residents in various towns and cities, particularly Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
However, K Chandrasekhar Rao, Telangana Chief Minister, has told the Centre that his government wants an additional Rs 20,000 crore.
“Through this project, Telangana will harness water at the confluence of three rivers with the 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,” a senior official tells The Indian Express.
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“This is the first time in the world that an irrigation project is using 139 MW pumps to lift a huge volume of 2 tmfct of water. Of the seven pumps, we will start operating five pumps initially,” said B Srinivas Reddy, the director of Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL), to the publication. Under contract with the State government, MEIL is operating a part of this project.
Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, meanwhile, told reporters that by Dussehra 50% of the project will be completed. Here are some other interesting facts about this project:
-KLIS is divided into 7 links and 29 packages.
-20 reservoirs in 13 districts have the capacity to story 145 tmfct.
-The network of reservoirs is connected by 330 km of tunnels with the longest one reaching 21 km.
-The network of canals stretches over 1832 km and can carry water to regions even 500 km away from the source.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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