Telangana requests GRMB to submit six DPRs to CWC

Hyderabad: Telangana has once again requested Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) to submit six detailed project reports (DPRs) submitted by the former, to Central Water Commission (CWC) for according clearances without any further loss of time. In a letter to the Board Chairman, Engineer-in-Chief (General) Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) C Muralidhar recalled that […]

Hyderabad: Telangana has once again requested Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) to submit six detailed project reports (DPRs) submitted by the former, to Central Water Commission (CWC) for according clearances without any further loss of time.

In a letter to the Board Chairman, Engineer-in-Chief (General) Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) C Muralidhar recalled that the Union Minister of Jal Shakti, in the second Apex Council meeting, assured that the appraisal would be done expeditiously.

Muralidhar informed that the six DPRs of Choutpally Hanmanth Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (CHRLIS), Chanaka-Korata, Chinna Kaleshwaram (Mukteshwar) Lift Irrigation Scheme, Tupakulagudem, Sitarama Lift Irrigation Scheme (SRLIS) and Modikuntavagu – submitted by Telangana were not new projects attracting the provision of Section 85 (8) (d) of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act (APRA)-2014.

All these projects are ongoing projects since 2010 and were grounded by the then government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (AP). In order to overcome defective planning in such ongoing projects, the Telangana government has undertaken re-engineering of certain existing and ongoing projects so as to ensure the optimum utilisation to full extent under these projects.

He reiterated all the ongoing projects together with completed projects were well within the entitled and planned utilizations of 967.94 TMC as applicable based on the grounded projects in undivided AP.

The erstwhile AP has undertaken these projects within the earmarked utilizations of 967.94 TMC in Godavari waters allotted by Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) only, duly ensuring that they do not negatively impact the projects downstream (Andhra region wherein the projects have been grounded with planned utilization of 518 TMC).

This being so, the projects – CHRLIS, Chinna Kaleshwaram (Mukteshwar) Lift Irrigation Scheme, Tupakulagudem, SRLIS and Modikuntavagu have been wrongly shown as unapproved projects in the gazette notification and these projects fall under the Category of Clause 1(d) explanation (ii).

In accordance with Clause 2(f), the DPRs of these unapproved projects have been submitted to CWC for technical clearance within the period of six months from the date of gazette notification.

Since these projects were taken up prior to June 2014, the GRMB was not mandated to look into aspects such as irrigation planning, cost, cost economics and designs, which were to be looked into by CWC as per the existing procedure for the earlier projects, he said.

“It is pertinent to bring to the notice that the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has explicitly taken a stand (in respect of Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) when the DPR was referred for appraisal by CWC) that CWC may look into the aspects such as hydrology, irrigation planning, water availability and inter-State issues reporting that it does not have requisite expertise.

However, it is apt to bring to notice that the DPR of RLIS in spite of it being a new project grounded by AP has not been shared with Telangana.

On such similar analogy, the DPRs as submitted by Telangana need not be shared with AP as these projects are not new. The GRMB and KRMB are taking varying stands as both are formed and mandated to function within the ambit of APRA- 2014 and the gazette notification.

The technical clearance of the DPRs of the ongoing projects (shown as un-approved in the gazette notification) should be accorded by CWC Directorates and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

The GRMB was not mandated to take a separate stand to the detrimental interest of Telangana, Muralidhar said.

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