Hyderabad: In a landmark moment for the mega Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, Godavari water flowed into the Nizam Sagar project in Kamareddy district on Wednesday, 14 days after water was released from Kondapochamma Sagar reservoir by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
The Godavari water reached the project backwaters at Golilingala at Nagireddypeta mandal in Kamareddy district at 5 pm, bringing joy to the farmers in the area.
Nizam Sagar project, the oldest dam in the State located 144 km from Hyderabad, will be filled with six TMC of water by mid-May that will facilitate officials and farmers to meet the irrigation requirements. The water will also help the farmers even if there was no bountiful rain in the coming monsoon season, officials said.
Farmers will not face any problems and they can commence their sowing activities this time as there will be sufficient water in the project. The project will be receiving one TMC of water every week and daily .14 TMC from Kondapochamma Sagar. At the same time, 32 check dams near the Nizam Sagar project will also be filled with Godavari water that would be supplied for the irrigation needs en route, Kamareddy Chief Engineer T Srinivas said.
On April 6, the Chief Minister released Godavari water from Kondapochamma Sagar into Haldi Vagu at Avusulapalli in Wargal mandal of Siddipet district. The Chief Engineer said it took 14 days for the Godavari water to reach Nizam Sagar project, travelling 90 km from Haldi Vagu. Since the Nizam Sagar project is downstream, the water will help farmers irrigate over 14,000 acres en route.
Actually, plans were chalked out to supply 3,000 cusecs of water every day to the dam from Mallanna Sagar reservoir, which is under construction, after creating a separate tunnel. As construction work of Mallanna Sagar reservoir was still on and to avoid further delay in supplying water to farmers under Nizam Sagar dam ayacut, the Chief Minister decided to supply water from Kondapochamma Sagar and achieved success in filling the dam with Godavari water from Haldi Vadu.
Officials said since Nizam Sagar project would be filled with Godavari water, there was more scope for aquaculture as also tourism. They said Haldi Vagu played a crucial role in filling Nizam Sagar project with Godavari water.
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