Interlinking of rivers will get TS State support

Hyderabad: Telangana will support the interlinking of rivers on condition that the current and future requirements of the basin States are met first, said Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday.

The Minister who participated in the meeting of the National Water Development Agency held in New Delhi said the Mahanadi-Godavari link should be first taken up before the proposed Godavari (Akinepalli) NSP Tail Pond-Cauvery (Grand anicut) link.

He said Telangana had reservations based on the basis of the preliminary studies pertaining to the proposed linking of river systems. He said the establishment of hydrology, location of source, transmission system, sink of the interlinking system, exploration of alternatives, selection of most cost effective, beneficial and least environmental and social impact alternatives should be taken into consideration for this purpose.

As far as Godavari basin is concerned, the Central Water Commission is relying on the 40 years series record for assessing the water yield at project site and availability of water for the project.

In the instant case 110 years time series had been used yielding 177 TMC surplus water at Akinepalli. Forty years series yields availability of hardly any water at this source. Hydrology aspects also should be taken into consideration to assess the present and future requirement of the basin States, he stressed. The proposal to link Godavari (Akinepalli) NSP tail pond-Cauvery (Grand anicut) should not have any adverse impact on downstream projects, he said.

The Minister made it clear that TS would require about 1600 TMC of Godavari water, against its earmarked utilization of 1260 TMC. He said the proposed barrage at Akinepalli with a storage capacity of 20 TMC is likely to submerge about 35,000 acres affecting 55,000 population in 45 villages in Warangal and Khammam districts of Telangana. In addition, the canal network would require 12,000 acres of land additionally.

The contemplating benefit under the proposed link is about 7.50 lakh acres, the Minister said, adding that a substantial part of the proposed ayacut was already covered under the existing and ongoing projects in the State or falling under the submergence of Polavaram project.

The socio-economic cost of acquiring 47,000 acres in Telangana will be enormous and time consuming. As the proposed link that will be passing through a significant forest area finding the land for compensatory afforestation and getting forest clearance would be a major challenge. It will also have adverse impact on Sitarama project that draws water from Dummugudem anicut which is downstream.