Telangana urges KRMB to stop GNSS, HNSS lift schemes on Krishna river in AP

Hyderabad: Telangana urged the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to stop Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS) and Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS) lift schemes on Krishna waters in Andhra Pradesh (AP) without due approvals from it or apex council as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act (APRA)-2014. It requested the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) […]

Hyderabad: Telangana urged the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) to stop Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS) and Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS) lift schemes on Krishna waters in Andhra Pradesh (AP) without due approvals from it or apex council as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act (APRA)-2014.

It requested the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to keep in abeyance the environment clearance (EC) granted to GNSS-HNSS lift schemes. A request was also made to the Ministry of Water Resources (MoER) explaining unauthorized expansion of the existing projects.

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In a letter to the KRMB, Telangana Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) department, Engineer-in-Chief (General), C Muralidhar said the AP government issued administrative approval in August 2020 for constructing a scheme to lift water from GNSS to HNSS for an amount of Rs.5,036 crore.

This was already brought to the notice of the KRMB. In the EC granted by SEIAA, it was mentioned that the scheme to lift water from GNSS to HNSS was an independent project, which is incorrect as this scheme is being proposed to draw water from GNSS main canal and discharge to many medium irrigation tanks, feeding HNSS main canal and Punganur branch canal of HNSS project.

It implies that AP was changing the scope of GNSS and HNSS projects and therefore, KRMB has to request SEIAA and MoEF to keep in abeyance the modification given to EC’s of GNSS and HNSS as the EC granted for GNSS-HNSS lift scheme was not within the purview of the State Level Authority, Muralidhar said.

Apart from the above scheme, the AP government has applied for EC for a new balancing reservoir near Avulapally village which is also a part of GNSS-HNSS lift to irrigate an ayacut of command area of 9700 hectares with a storage capacity of 2.5 TMC in the first phase with ultimate storage capacity of 3.5 TMC.

This scheme was proposed to draw 15.53 TMC. The same was brought to the notice of KRMB. The scheme was proposed to tap flood waters from the existing rivers based on the flood data, utilizing existing infrastructure of the GNSS and HNSS projects without modifying the original scope of projects.

This scheme was based on the consideration of assured flood water joining the Gandikota reservoir that will be supplied through GNSS and HNSS Iift scheme. AP stated that there was no change or alteration or the modification of GNSS and HNSS projects but it was diverting water from HNSS-Punganuru Branch canal which is part of HNSS project phase-II.

Earlier Telangana requested KRMB several times to restrain AP from proceeding with such illegal expansions of the projects by diverting Krishna water to outside basins. Telangana has been contesting these outside basin projects – HNSS and GNSS before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II), Muralidhar said.