Left with precious little, Telangana says no KRMB plea for AP

The KRMB wanted the State to release the required quantum of water to Andhra Pradesh from March 7

Hyderabad: Hard pressed to meet even the drinking water needs under Zone I and Zone II of the Nagarajuna Sagar Project command within Telangana, the State irrigation authorities have declined a request made by the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to release about 2 tmc of water (at the rate of 1500 cusecs for a period of 15 days) to Andhra ayacut in Zone III of the left canal of the project.

The KRMB wanted the State to release the required quantum of water to Andhra Pradesh from March 7. Irrigation officials wrote to KRMB making it clear that even if the water was released from the left canal, the evaporation losses would be more, as it had to flow down from km 102 to Km 117 of the 21st Main Branch canal and the net realisation at the AP end would be far less than the requirement.

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Zone III of the NSP left canal serves agriculture lands in Krishna district. Both the States had agreed to utilise whatever water was left out in the project only for the drinking water purpose till July next. Zone III of the left canal gets water for the irrigated dry (ID) crops from November to February in a normal rainfall year. This being a deficient rainfall year, no water was given for irrigation in Zone I and Zone II of the Left canal. A crop holiday was also declared under the project.

The Nagarjuna Sagar Left Canal has total command area of 10.38 lakh acres to irrigate. Nearly 62 per cent (6.41 lakh acres) of its ayacut falls in in Telangana and the rest in AP. Telangana State had made a request to KRMB on February 1 for additional water to meet the drinking water needs up to the end of July 2024. The KRMB, however, wanted the State to stick to its release orders issued on October 9, 2023 permitting utilisation of only 35 tmc of which it had already utilised 31.17 tmc.