Pranahita-Chevella: Maharashtra declines concurrence, fears unrest in its pockets

An extent of 3,786 acres of area was to be submerged by the barrage at Thummidihetti and the affected areas happened to be the strongholds of the BJP cadres

Hyderabad: Efforts were made at all levels for implementing the Pranahita Chevella Project as conceived originally by dispelling the submergence fears of the riparian State in the neighbourhood.

But Maharashtra was not ready to agree for anything less than lowering the FRL of the proposed barrage at Tummidihetti from 152 metres to 148 meters, according to C Muralidhar, Engineer -In- Chief (General) Department of Irrigation.

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Briefing the group of Ministers and the media persons who visited Medigadda barrage as part of a stocktaking mission on the sinking of its piers, he said the Maharashtra government feared unrest in Gadchiroli and Chandrapur areas because of the risk of submergence in the event of impounding water up to proposed full reservoir level of 152 metres.

An extent of 3,786 acres of area was to be submerged by the barrage at Thummidihetti and the affected areas happened to be the strongholds of the BJP cadres. The BJP government of the day in Maharashtra was not keen on according its concurrence to the project against the wishes of the local people and farmers.

A three-tier committee was formed to finalise the FRL level with mutual consensus. But no consensus could be arrived at despite several rounds of discussions. Though public hearings were completed in all the seven districts of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh for implementing the project, in view of the serious opposition from the Gadchiroli and Chandrapur people, the exercise could not be conducted in Maharashtra.

As against the estimated cost of Rs 36,257 crores, the government had spent Rs. 6,156 crore on it up to 2014 and Rs.5,522 crores from 2014 to 2016 (before the re-engineering of the project).

Mainly due to the location of the head-works on the Maharashtra side of the river, the implementation of the project had to face inter-state issues and the constitution of the inter-state board with a view to ironing out the issues coming in the way of its implementation did not deliver the desired results, he explained.