Telangana wants KRMB headquarters in Krishna basin

State Opposes AP’s proposal to shift it to Visakhapatnam

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has sought the Krishna River Management Board’s (KRMB) intervention in ensuring that the board headquarters is located in the Krishna basin and not shifted to Visakhapatnam.

In a letter addressed to the KRMB Member Secretary, Irrigation and CAD Department Engineer-in-Chief (General), Inter-State Water Resources, C Muralidhar, referring to news articles, said the Andhra Pradesh government had decided to set up the KRMB headquarters in Visakhapatnam instead of Vijayawada as decided earlier.

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He said Visakhapatnam is not in the Krishna basin and it would also be difficult for officials to attend the KRMB meetings as the city is 618 km away from Hyderabad. The shifting would result in more expenditure towards travel and accommodation for members and senior engineers along with the subordinate staff. The support staff do not enjoy air travel facility and should have to travel by railways a day before.

In March 2019, the KRMB had circulated a note for shifting its headquarters from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, and the KRMB Chairman had also visited Vijayawada to finalise accommodation from the shortlisted buildings.

As per the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II) award (yet to be published), the Krishna Water Decision Implementation Board (KWDIB) will come into force. The present KWDT-II proceedings are in an adavanced stage. The award stipulated that “The board shall determine the place of its headquarters and location at a central and suitable place for its regional and sub-regional offices as need be.”

Keeping in view the above aspects, the proposal of shifting the KRMB headquarters to Visakhapatnam must be re-looked into, the letter said.

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