The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project has the potential to create an engineering marvel and show the path for the country in coming up with innovative approaches to solve water woes, but it has its own set of dangers, says Srinath Rangarajan
The results of the recently held Assembly Elections in five states have hogged the limelight for many reasons. While the resurgence of Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh was the silver lining for that party, the state of Telangana told a completely different story. The incumbent political party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) won in a resounding manner defeating Prajakutami, a united opposition front. The emphatic victory of TRS has made many analysts and thinkers across the country ponder over the reasons for the impressive electoral performance. Over the past four and a half years, TRS launched many social welfare schemes, irrigation projects and financial assistance programs. Out of all these, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) is something unique in many aspects. It is being built at a cost of more than Rs 80,000 crore and is the costliest irrigation project undertaken by any state in India so far.
KLIP was originally conceived from the Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project. This was originally supposed to utilise 160 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of allocated waters of the Godavari river. Hence, a barrage was proposed at a place called Tummidihatti near the Maharashtra border to divert 160 TMC of water and use it for irrigation
However, irrigation projects across rivers have at various stages, issues associated with them starting from the pre-construction stage to the post-commissioning phase. The Pranahita Chevella project is being built across river Godavari and this river originates in Maharashtra and has a catchment basin spreading across the states of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, it is anything but unnatural for this project to fall victim to the unceasing interstate water disputes between the states having stakes.
The Maharashtra Government repeatedly expressed concerns over fixing of the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) for constructing the Tummidihatti Barrage due to submergence of 3,786 acres of land in their territory. A considerable portion of this land constitutes the environmentally sensitive forest areas. Consequently, the FRL had to be reduced from +152.00 to +148.00 to reduce the submergence from 3,786 to 285 acres. This was mutually agreed upon by both the State Governments and a final agreement was reached upon to construct a barrage at Tummidihatti with FRL of +148.00 on August 23, 2016.
However, this is where the actual problems came to the surface. Detailed water availability studies carried out by the Government of Telangana and subsequently by the Central Water Commission (CWC), New Delhi found out that divertible flows at an FRL of +148.00 after deducting the upstream abstractions by Maharashtra would only be 44 TMC against the originally planned 160 TMC. Thus, CWC has advised the Government of Telangana to look again into the location of the barrages to match the demand and supply of water. This made the Telangana Government dependent on the area in the downstream side on the river Pranahita, the largest tributary of river Godavari.
It is in this context that an alternate location for constructing the barrage across Godavari was investigated by M/S WAPCOS Ltd by using the latest Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technique of surveying and the location was proposed at Medigadda near Kaleshwaram in the Jayashankar-Bhupalapally District of Telangana. The water availability by CWC at this location has been assessed as 284.3 TMC which comfortably meets the supply and demand. The original project of Pranahita Chevella has now been divided into two components namely BR Ambedkar Pranahita Project by constructing a barrage at Tummidihetti to facilitate irrigation and water supply to Adilabad District in Northern Telangana and the remaining segment is the KLIP.
Geographically, Telangana is situated on the Deccan Plateau at a higher elevation than the elevation at which the river Godavari flows in the state. Hence, irrigation through gravity canals alone is not a feasible option and lift irrigation should be employed. In the case of KLIP, the lift heights have become as high as 350 meters due to the need for redesigning the project because of the changed location at Medigadda. This change in location has also imposed the need to reverse the flow of the mighty Godavari across the Medigadda Barrage. The project now constitutes seven links and 28 packages, thus aiming to create a new ayacut of 18.25 lakh acres in 13 districts and stabilisation of existing ayacuts of 18.82 lakh acres. The project boasts of 1,531km long gravity pressure canals, 203km long tunnels, 98km long pressure pipelines, 1,832km long water supply routes, 22 lifts, 22 pumps, 14 reservoirs and 19 electrical power substations. The project has been racing against time with record concrete pours per day. KLIP witnessed reinforced cement concrete pour of 22,584 cum from December 22 to 25, 2018 on the spillway piers in Medigadda Barrage breaking all previous world records in concrete pour.
There are many other firsts and records in this project. The surge pools in ‘package six’, which are used to store water from tunnels and lift them upwards, are the largest in the world. The pumps installed in ‘package eight’ which have successfully completed the dry run, popularly called as the “Bahubali Motors”, have a capacity of 89.14 cumecs per second and require a whopping 139 MW power for operation, both of them being world records. Similarly, package 10 boasts of Asia’s biggest open surge pool. There are also state of the art gas grid substations which occupy very less space underground, compared to conventional substations. The civil works being completed also cater to the possible future expansion. Various allied and associated works like compensatory afforestation are also proceeding at a breakneck speed. All this has led to the actual cost of the project as worked out to be Rs 80,190 crore.
The KLIP is being seen as a solution to end the water woes of Telangana by providing uninterrupted water supply to agriculture for all the three seasons of the crop and providing drinking water to several villages, towns and cities of the state -planned under another flagship project of Telangana “Mission Bhagiratha”.
The other takeaways include the timely and pragmatic resolution of interstate water disputes between Maharashtra and Telangana. Despite constitutional and statutory mechanisms, setting up of various river water boards and tribunals, many states across the country have not been successful in resolving contentious issues on the river water sharing for decades. Telangana and Maharashtra have shown the maturity and leadership to move forward in a rational way without harming the interests of each other. They showed the way forward for the country in this regard. Similarly, the CWC and Ministry of Water Resources have also been highly supportive in timely assessments and clearances. KLIP has received 10 statutory clearances from CWC within a period of nine months including cost appraisal, environmental and forest clearance — an unusual speed for administrative approvals. Despite TRS and BJP being at the opposite ends of the political spectrum, the proactive nature of CWC to the State Government displays a perfect example of cooperative federalism. The CWC has also appreciated the various technical aspects and the speed of execution of KLIP.
While everything seems to be going well, there are matters to be taken care of. The completion of works within the schedule timeline of June 2022 without any cost escalation remains a challenge. Technical issues may crop up during operations even if one loose end is left unaddressed. Apart from these, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), an activist group in the State, is claiming that the project does not necessitate a change in location from Tummidihatti to Medigadda, notwithstanding the CWC’s recommendations. They argue that enough water can be drawn through gravity canals from Tumidihetti. They even claim to have done a scientific analysis on water availability at Tummidihatti.
Apart from this, they are also contesting the other stated benefits of KLIP with respect to crop production, farmer welfare etc. While it is true that officials from Government and TRS spokespersons have been negating these claims of TJAC in Television debates, it is in the best interests of transparency and accountability, the Government of Telangana should come out with more technical and authentic clarification in this regard. And it is also true that some of the stated benefits can only be noticed once the whole project becomes operational. But the biggest issue is the operation and maintenance cost that would be needed to keep a project of this magnitude running. Some estimates by civil society activists peg it to be around Rs 15,000-20,000 crore per annum.
There are also fears that KLIP being a State Government project with enormous financial burden, can impair the State’s economy — with regards to its execution as well as subsequent annual maintenance costs. Probably it is for this reason, the Telangana Government is repeatedly seeking the status of National Project for KLIP. Time will only answer whether all these fears are indeed true or not.
KLIP, in due course of time has the potential to create an engineering marvel and show the path for the country to move ahead in coming up with bold and innovative approaches to solve water woes. This does not mean to say that there are no dangers lurking around. But the way in which the TRS Government headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao have handled the situation instills more hope than fear.
The writer is a Senior Engineer in Vijay Nirman Company and views expressed are personal.
He can be contacted at srinathr88@gmail.com
