Integration of PRLIS with Kalwakurthy Lift on the anvil

The Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) would help the Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme overcome its shortcomings.

Hyderabad: The Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) would help the Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme overcome its shortcomings. For both the lift schemes, source of water is the backwaters of the Srisailam project. Though the foundation stone for the Kalwakurthy Lift project was laid way back in 1984, the work on the project was started in 2014.

Five high capacity 30MW pumps were installed, but only three of them were being operated on a regular basis while the fourth one was used off and on. The water carrying capacity of the main canal was far less compared to the installed capacity of the pumps. The irrigation department has already been entrusted with the task of integrating the Kalwakurthy lift scheme with the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Left Scheme adding to the benefits of the former.

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Designed to lift some 25 tmc of water provide irrigation to 3.65 lakh acres and drinking water facility to the chronically drought prone upland areas in Mahabubnagar district, it is falling short in delivering the desired results mainly due to the inadequate carrying capacity of the main canal. The scheme consists of four balancing reservoirs at Yellur, Singotam, Jonnalaboguda and Gudipallygattu. The proposed linking of the two lift schemes can be implemented by linking the balancing reservoir as the water lifted from Krishna takes it upward journeys.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who mooted this idea, has already asked irrigation officials to come up with plans to link the Palamaru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme with the Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme to ensure that Krishna water was provided to every acre in erstwhile Mahabubnagar district. Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, who took stock of the work progress on Stage I of the PRLIS, said the integration of the two schemes would be welcomed by the people in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district. Moves for linking the two lift schemes at their multi stage lifting points was under active consideration.