Cong govt will revive Tummidihetti project: Uttam

Hyderabad: Reiterating that Kaleshwaram barrages — Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram — will be made operational only after their rehabilitation and safety checks, irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has said the state govt will revive Thummidihatti as part of Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi Project as promised in the Congress manifesto.

Impounding water in the Kaleshwaram barrages with defective foundation may trigger a disaster, the minister said.Making a detailed PowerPoint presentation on the status of the Medigadda barrage and other key components of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) to CM A Revanth Reddy, ministers, MPs and MLAs at Praja Bhavan on Tuesday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress govt has already taken up work on the Medigadda rehabilitation design and would now move ahead with the Tummidihetti project, which he described as a technically superior, economically viable and energy-efficient alternative to the Kaleshwaram project.The minister said that according to the 2022 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), expenditure on the Kaleshwaram project had already crossed Rs 1.27 lakh crore, which was likely to exceed Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Uttam said Telangana’s people deserve to know how massive public expenditure was incurred on a “project that is today facing serious structural and operational challenges”.Quoting the CAG report, Uttam Kumar Reddy said one of its most significant observations was that when all Kaleshwaram pumps operate simultaneously, the project alone would consume electricity comparable to the entire power consumption of Telangana.

“This is not our allegation. This is a specific observation made by the CAG,” he added.Drawing a comparison between the original Pranahita-Chevella design and the redesigned Kaleshwaram project, the minister said Congress proposal at Tummidihetti would have required only about 3,466 MW of power annually, whereas Kaleshwaram was designed to require nearly 8,450 MW.Stating Tummidihatti has a big advantage, he said that the original Pranahita-Chevella project was designed to utilise nearly 72 kilometres of gravity flow, requiring only a 19-metre lift near Yellampalli project.

Due to this engineering advantage, power consumption would have been drastically lower while irrigation benefits would have remained intact, he added. Uttam Kumar Reddy said CM Revanth Reddy and he would visit Tummidihetti in the next few days for an on-the-spot inspection.“Pranahita-Chevella project could have been completed at a cost of around Rs 38,000 crore, irrigating nearly 16.5 lakh acres besides providing drinking water to several regions of north Telangana. Instead of taking up the project, the BRS govt redesigned the project, which resulted in enormous financial expenditure, massive power requirements and the present structural problems witnessed at Medigadda. The wrong decision to shift the project from Tummidihetti to Medigadda has caused permanent damage to Telangana’s interests,” Uttam Kumar Reddy added.