‘Dry run of Narlapur pump in PRLIS likely by August end’

Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy urged farmers and the BRS cadre to organise celebrations at all the reservoirs under PRLIS

Hyderabad: Less than 24 hours after receiving the approval of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for environmental clearance to the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS), the State government is gearing up to conduct dry run of the pump houses of Anjanagiri reservoir located at Narlapur in erstwhile Mahabubnagar district. If all goes well, the officials are likely to commence operation of its operation by the end of August.

Announcing this on Friday, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy urged farmers and the BRS cadre to organise celebrations at all the reservoirs under PRLIS. The celebrations will be conducted at Narlapur, Yedula, Vattem, Karvena and Uddandapur reservoirs, thanking Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for construction of the Palamuru-Rangareddy project benefiting farmers in three erstwhile districts of Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda permanently.

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“The PRLIS will have pumps with a capacity of 145 MW each which is higher than the 139 MW pumps being utilised in Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS). Thus, the pumps at PRLIS will be able to pump out 2 TMC water every day. The dry run of the first pump will be conducted by this month end,” he said. He said upon completion, the PRLIS will transform the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district which was once a drought-prone area into a fertile green land over the next a few years.

The construction of the PRLIS is going on at a brisk pace, with the first phase nearing completion. Around 85 per cent of works pertaining to the Anjanagiri reservoir have been completed. Being touted as the tallest reservoir in Telangana upon completion, it’s storage capacity is 6.5 tmc. About 10 pumps with 145 MW each have been installed at the pump house.

Further, the Veeranjaneya barrage at Yedula has been constructed within a record span of 24 months and has a storage capacity of 6.55 tmc to stabilise around 50,000 acres of ayacut. The State government has already released compensation of Rs 205 crore to 1,299 oustees. The Venkatadri reservoir at Vattem will provide fresh ayacut of 1.39 lakh acres. The Kurumurthy Raya reservoir at Karivena has the largest storage capacity of 19 tmc and will create new ayacut of 1.5 lakh acres.

However, the Uddandapur reservoir being constructed with a storage capacity of 16.03 tmc, will create the highest ayacut of 9.36 lakh acres under the PRLIS.