Kaleshwaram an engineering marvel, says visiting Maharashtra leader

The Kaleshwaram project has transformed Telangana into a 'Model State' for irrigation and farmers' welfare, said Bhanudas Murkute

Hyderabad: “The multi-stage Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) is an engineering marvel. It’s a symbol of progress and ingenuity. We have never come across such a project in the country.” This is the view of a team of leaders from Maharashtra after their visit to the gigantic project here earlier this week.

The team, comprising politicians who recently joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi from Maharashtra and led by three-time MLA Bhanudas Murkute, visited the Kaleshwaram project and Mission Kakatiya sites on Sunday and Monday and were highly impressed with the project. They couldn’t believe that a project of this magnitude could be completed in just three years without any hurdles and start providing water for irrigation and drinking purposes. The team members were all praise for Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao under whose leadership the project was completed in record time.

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Sharing his experience with Telangana Today, Bhanudas Murkute said Kaleshwaram was a feather in the cap of Telangana. The project has transformed Telangana into a ‘Model State’ for irrigation and farmers’ welfare, he said.

“As per my knowledge, this is the greatest irrigation project of the country. We don’t know. It may be one of the greatest projects in the world itself,” he said.

Giving full credit to the Chief Minister for taking up such a massive irrigation project, Murkute said the team visited various barrages, tunnels and pumping stations constructed as part of the Kaleshwaram project and were impressed with the way the entire project was conceptualised by the Chief Minister. “Bhagirath brought Ganga to earth from heaven. But Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao has taken Godavari River from earth upwards through the lift irrigation project,” he said.

It’s amazing to know how the Kaleshwaram project has transformed the lives of people of Telangana and has put an end to the water woes of the people, he said, adding that people of Maharashtra too needed such projects to put an end to water woes of the State.

“We will explain to the people of Maharashtra about the development taking place in Telangana under the leadership of CM KCR and the need to implement similar welfare programmes in our State,” he said.

Another team member, former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ghanshyam Shelar, too was impressed by the project, its size, scale and complexity. ” Never before has this type of project been implemented in India or elsewhere. I have not come across such a gigantic one in my life,” he said.

“We visited Lakshmi Barrage, Nandi pump house, Gayatri pump house, Ranganayaka Sagar, Mallanna Sagar reservoir and many other sites. They are marvelous. A true testimony to great engineering work,” he said.

KCR in Maharashtra will end farmers’ suicides

Expressing concern over continuing deaths by suicide by farmers in Maharashtra, former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ghanshyam Shelar said schemes and programmes being implemented in Telangana by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao could help in ending farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra.

Welcoming the decision of Chandrashekhar Rao to expand the BRS in Maharashtra, he said this would benefit the people, especially farmers. “I firmly believe that if BRS emerges as a strong force in Maharashtra and the schemes implemented in Telangana are implemented there, suicides by farmers will stop,” he said.

Stating that the political instability in Maharashtra was affecting development of the State, Shelar said the State needs a leader like KCR, who could deliver and take up irrigation projects like Kaleshwaram. “Maharashtra needs the ‘Telangana Model’ of development,” he said.