Satellite images show River Godavari travelling 172 kms to rejuvenate drought-prone Sircilla
By Newsmeter Network Published on 15 Dec 2019 5:54 PM IST
Hyderabad: Satellite images have shown that River Godavari’s water has reached the people of Sircilla over a month, thanks to the Kaleshwaram project. It is a cause for celebration for the usually drought-prone district of Rajanna-Sircilla. This water helps rejuvenate many irrigation projects along the way.
The waters of Godavari have been channelled using tunnels and gravity canals to the Mid Manair reservoir, which is a part of the Kaleshwaram project. In one month — November to December — 20 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) water was lifted from the Godavari river. It was diverted to the dam, providing irrigation support for around two lakh acres of land, passing through places like Sircilla, Mushtipalle, Chinthalatana, Lakshmipuram, Varadavelli among others.
The water project ensures the transportation of River Godavari water from Medigadda barrage to Sircilla. Travelling 172 kilometres, all the way from Medigadda barrage, the river’s water irrigates several agricultural tracts on its way. The project gives hope to resolving drinking water woes of people in the district. Farmers can also raise two crops with abundant water availability.
The Kaleshwaram project, inaugurated in June 2019, is considered the world’s largest lift irrigation project. Constructed at the cost of over Rs 1 lakh crore to irrigate about 50 lakh acres in Telangana, it will also be providing drinking water to all districts in the state.
The barrage has 20 pumping stations and each station with a capacity of 40MWs can lift 660 cusecs of water, which is almost unheard of across the globe. If not for the Kaleshwaram project, the water that reached Sircilla would have ended up as a waste in the sea.
Although the Kaleshwaram project has been designed to pump two TMC of water per day, officials have decided to inject a third TMC every day. The third TMC water will be used for filling Sriram Sagar project and Nagarjuna Sagar ayacut. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao intends to pump the additional third TMC water to Dindi project as well.
