Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme to start pumping by August-end

HYDERABAD: The Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) will start pumping water to meet the drinking water needs of parts of south Telangana districts by the end of August or during the first week of September this year.

According to senior Irrigation officials, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao would grace the occasion and switch on two pumps marking a watershed moment in the history of upland areas of Nagarkurnool, Mahabubnagar, Vikarabad, Narayanapet, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts. The PRLIS while stabilising 10 lakh acres of ayacut would also enhance it by 12.03 lakh acres.

“As per the Supreme Court’s orders, we cannot operate the project for irrigation purposes but we can use the same for drinking water purposes till the Apex Court permits us to do so,” Sridhar Rao Deshpande Chief Minister’s adviser on Irrigation told NewsTAP on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court in July stayed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order imposing a Rs 500 crore fine on the Telangana government for alleged violation of green laws while constructing PRLIS and the Dindi Lift Irrigation Project. But the Apex court allowed Telangana to complete drinking water component works up to 7.15 TMC, strictly under the purview of environmental laws.

Accordingly, TS Transco engineers completed electric works by charging the 400kV substation at Yedula. The pumping station at Teegalapally which would lift water to Veeranjaneya Reservoir at Yedula, was equipped with nine pumps of 145 megawatt each. Each pump would lift water to a height of 124 metres and would discharge 2,650 cusecs water into the reservoir. Works on the other four pump houses at Narlapur, Vattem, Karivena and Uddandapur were at different stages of completion.

The project was designed to lift water in five stages from the foreshore Srisailam Project. First, the machines at Yellur would draw water and lift it to fill the Anjanagiri reservoir at Narlapur village. From Anjanagiri the water would be lifted to fill the proposed Sri Veeraanjaneya Reservoir at Yedula. Water from Sri Veeranjaneya reservoir would be lifted to fill the proposed Venkatadri reservoir at Vattem village and Kurumarthyraya reservoir at Karivena village. Both the reservoirs would be linked through a gravity canal.

At stage four, water from Kurumarthyraya reservoir would be lifted to fill the proposed Udandapur reservoir. During the final stage, an approach channel from the Udandapur reservoir would be used to fill the proposed KP Lakshmidevipally reservoir. The total lift of water in five stages would be a massive 543 metres.