Relocation of KRMB HQ to Andhra Pradesh an epic riddle

Nine years since the division of the State, the Board continued to function much to the convenience of the riparian States from the Jala Soudha office in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The long awaited shifting of the headquarters of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has turned out to be an epic riddle to be resolved on its own.

The issue of shifting of the headquarters figured on the agenda of the board meetings more number of times than water sharing issues but yet a solution has not emerged.

Nine years since the division of the State, the Board continued to function much to the convenience of the riparian States from the Jala Soudha office in Hyderabad. Many of its employees wish that it continued here.

However, though the Board authorities are keen on moving to Andhra Pradesh adhering to the Provision 85(2) of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, it is not able to find the required office space.

For many years, the board was quite uncertain over its permanent location in Andhra Pradesh. Initially, it was expected to be relocated to Amaravathi as in the case of many other central government offices.

But the Government of AP wanted the Board to be shifted to Visakhapatnam as it would be easier to coordinate with the Department of Water Resources of AP.

The move was strongly opposed in different quarters. Farmers and elected representatives from AP’s Rayalaseema region wanted KRMB to be relocated to Kurnool, the erstwhile AP capital.

Telangana also opposed in writing the move to shift the KRMB headquarters to Visakhapatnam, as the city was not part of the Krishna River Basin. Visakhapatnam is 618 km away from Hyderabad. Irrigation officials of Telangana are under the impression that it would be difficult to attend KRMB meetings in Visakhapatnam once it was shifted from Hyderabad and that air travel would be expensive.

The Board has been insisting on free accommodation whereas the AP government has been offering it on rental basis. Initially, AP had come up with a proposal to allot 6718.58 sft (excluding parking area).

The KRMB is presently functioning from an office spread over 7557 sft in Hyderabad. The KRMB member secretary has been insisting for allotment of at least 17000 sft instead.

The board has received an official communication from the Engineer in Chief of the AP government that office space of 9,200 sft of office space would be made available once the government building in construction was ready.

Employees of the board drawn from both the States are worried that once the new academic year commences for their children, they would not able to move to Visakhapatnam in the middle of the year at short notice.

The AP government, which has been firm on shifting the Board headquarters to Visakhapatnam at any cost, was not successful so far in offering office space as per the requirement of the KRMB.

Both the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) were constituted in 2014 as per the provisions of the AP Reorganization Act. The GRMB was based permanently in Hyderabad.