Asifabad: Kumram Bheem project lies in state of neglect

Officials have been using polythene covers to prevent bund breaches at the irrigation project, which is situated in a region that has been seeing heavy rains for the last two years.

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Once touted to be a lifeline for the district, the Kumram Bheem project here is lying in a state of neglect. Irrigation officials are now relying on polythene covers to protect the bund, which developed cracks, allegedly due to poor quality of work.

The major irrigation project was built across Peddavagu at Ada village in Asifabad mandal in 2011, with a storage capacity of 10.393 TMC with the total cost estimated to be Rs.748 crore. However, only Rs.548 crore was spent to construct the project and canals so far.

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It was envisaged to irrigate 45,500 acres in both Asifabad and Sirpur (T) Assembly constituencies under both left and right bank canals of the project.

Officials have been using polythene covers to prevent bund breaches at the irrigation project, which is situated in a region that has been seeing heavy rains for the last two years.

They were reportedly forced to depend on the polythene covers due to a crunch of funds to repair the bund. The fate of the project is now almost left to the mercy of nature. The sorry state of the project has farmers worried a lot.

Kole Madhukar, a farmer from Jaithpur village in Wankidi mandal, said farmers had pinned many hopes on the project, but it failed to live up to their expectations. He stated that they were growing crops without expecting water from the project. He opined that farmers would be able to raise two crops per annum if the water from the project was supplied to agricultural needs.

Collector Venkatesh Dothre, who recently inspected the project, instructed the officials to complete the repair works by October. Irrigation officials said proposals to take up repairs on the bund were prepared at an estimated cost of Rs.5 crore.