Telangana agrees to management of projects by KRMB, three-member committee to decide on share in waters

HYDERABAD: Putting an end to the long pending issue of management of two common projects Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar, both the sibling States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh finally agreed to handover management of the projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).

In a crucial meeting held here on Thursday at the Jala Soudha, the Engineers in Chief of both the State agreed the hand over the projects to the KRMB but disagreed on the management of the hydroelectric projects. Telangana had been arguing Srisailam project was sanctioned as a Hydroelectric project by the Planning Commission in 1962 for supplying 264 TMC to the Nagarjunasagar project. Accordingly, the MDDL of Srisailam should be +830 ft as per KWDT-I Award.

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Speaking to the media after the KRMB meeting Narayana Reddy, Engineer In Chief I&CAD of Andhra Pradesh said that out of the 15 projects that were under the KRMB, nine were in Telangana and the remaining in AP.

“We have no objection to handing over the management to KRMB. For day-to-day operations, we have enough staff and the three-member committee will decide on the share of Krishna River water, and operational protocol,” he said.

He added that the KRMB meeting decided that AP would receive 2 TMC from the left main canal and 3 TMC from the right main canal in March and 5TMC of water was already allocated for AP in April.

C Muralidhar, ENC Telangana said that Telangana also agreed to hand over the operation of common projects to KRMB. “However no decision was taken on the operation of the hydroelectric projects. For the time being Telangana will look after Nagarjuna Sagar and AP will look after Srisailam,” he said. He pointed out that the Telangana Government enlisted its concerns to the Jala Shakti ministry and waiting for their reply. He made it clear that the security at the project level would taken care of by the KRMB. “Even the CRPF manning the projects must be reporting to the KRMB,” he said.

“However, handing over of projects means only the operation and release of water,” he clarified and said that KRMB demanded a share of staff in a ratio of 40:45 between Telangana and AP.