KLIS pumps hardly switched on this season
Hyderabad: Link II of the prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) includes two stages of lifting of water from Yellampalli to Mid Manair via Nandi Medaram and Lakshmipur pump houses, while Link IV has a three stage lift and a separate pipeline from Midmanair via Anantagiri, Mallannasagar and Kondapochamma Sagar. The MEIL, Pratima and KNR constructions bagged the tenders and are ready to begin their work on Link II and IV.
While efforts are on to augment the lifting capacity for the additional tmc, the engineers expressed satisfaction over the dynamic nature of the KLIS. “As and when water comes, it can be lifted. Only balancing reservoirs are required and there is no need to worry about reservoir capacity,” a senior KLIS engineer said. “For instance, Nandi Medaram reservoir (between package 7 and 8) has a capacity of only 0.85 tmc and is very small. Despite this, we are lifting 2 tmc as there is no need to hold water for too long,” the KLIS engineer said.
No need to burn power
The advantage of KLIS is that the engineers do not have to turn on pumps at all this season. Only in the month of July when the water resources department was worried about a dry spell did they lift water for about a week. After rains in August, there was no lifting of water. As there were heavy inflows into Sri Ram Sagar Project and Yellampalli, no pumps were turned on at Medigadda. Pumps worked in link IV for a few weeks as there was no flood there. Link I and Link II pumps were totally off.
“We have explained many times how the KLIS pumping system works, but there is apprehension that water was lifted and then released downstream wasting electricity. These are false allegations. We have lifted water from Mid Manair, Anantagiri, and Ranganayak Sagar and up to Kondapochamma in June and July and successfully stored it in our reservoirs. Only flood water has gone down the stream from the barrages,” he explained.
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