No national status for Kaleswaram project: Centre

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday announced that the prestigious Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project in Telangana cannot be accorded national status. The categorical response came from Bishweswar Tudu, Union Minister of State for Jalshakti, in Lok Sabha.

The Union minister of state was responding to a question raised by Nalgonda Member of Parliament N Uttam Kumar Reddy. Tudu acknowledged that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had made a request to the Centre seeking national status to the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.

However, it cannot be enlisted under the national project scheme as the project does not have the requisite clearances for its investments, the Jalshakti minister of state clarified. The construction of Kaleshwaram or KLIP, the brainchild of KCR, was completed in a record time of three years. An estimated Rs 1.2 lakh crores were invested for the entire project related work. It boasts of being the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project.