Transforming Telangana’s irrigation: The Kaleshwaram Project’s legacy
The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project redefined Telangana’s agriculture by fully utilising its Godavari share, creating new ayacuts, stabilising existing projects, and boosting storage. Despite criticism and challenges, it remains central to the state’s irrigation security and KCR’s vision of a golden Telangana
The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, spearheaded by the K Chandrashekhar Rao government, stands as a landmark achievement in transforming Telangana’s irrigation framework. By ensuring the effective use of the state’s Godavari water allocation, this ambitious project has redefined agricultural prospects.
The re-engineering of critical infrastructure — Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages, along with associated pumps and substations — accounts for just 10–12 per cent of the project’s total cost. This strategic effort was designed to store water during severe droughts, particularly when the upper Godavari lacks floodwater, to support kharif and rabi crops and stabilise irrigation for 19–20 lakh acres under existing projects.
The 1979 Bachawat Award granted 1,480 TMC of Godavari water to the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, with Telangana entitled to roughly two-thirds of this share. However, successive governments in the combined state, instead of prioritising irrigation projects in Telangana, largely overlooked major Godavari-based initiatives except for Sriramsagar and Yellampalli. Coastal Andhra’s leadership diverted water from Telangana’s streams and the Pranahita River to secure storage for 13 lakh acres in the Godavari delta, sidelining Telangana’s irrigation needs.
The Telangana movement in 2001 triggered the Devadula Project, allocated 38 TMC, but no barrage was built on the Godavari. Instead, then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu proposed lifting water from Bondal, even as the movement gained momentum.
Progress on Devadula, however, remained stalled. The Kaleshwaram Project reshaped this narrative. Recent heavy rainfall in the upper Godavari catchment has filled the Sriramsagar reservoir, prompting some to argue erroneously that Kaleshwaram is unnecessary.
Such claims reflect a poor understanding of Telangana’s irrigation history. Over the past five decades, how often have Sriramsagar and Nizamsagar released water into the river? Chronic droughts triggered mass migrations from northern Telangana and contributed to socio-economic challenges, including the rise of Naxalism. Kaleshwaram directly addresses these issues.
Kaleshwaram’s achievements
Under the leadership of K Chandrashekhar Rao, Telangana fully utilised its 968 TMC Godavari water share for the first time. Through seven links and 28 packages, the project has created a new ayacut of 18.25 lakh acres, besides stabilising an ayacut of 18.75 lakh acres under projects such as Singur, Nizam Sagar, Ghanapuram Anicut, Sriramsagar Flood Canal, Upper Manair, Yellampalli and various tanks.
The project facilitates storage of approximately 100 TMC in the main Godavari from Manuguru to Khanapur Sadarmat barrage backwater (312 km), 100 TMC in Sriramsagar, Nizam Sagar and Singur, and over 100 TMC in reservoirs like Mallanna Sagar, Kondapochamma, Mid-Manair, Ellampalli, Ananthasagar, Ranganayaka Sagar and Baswapur. With an investment of Rs 80,000 crore, the BRS government enabled the lifting of two TMC of water and, with most works now completed, an additional one TMC can also be drawn.
Sammakka Barrage: A strategic triumph
The KCR government constructed the Sammakka Barrage at Tupakulagudem in Mulugu district, downstream of Medigadda, to bolster the Devadula Project. This barrage lifts 88.18 TMC in three phases, irrigates 5.57 lakh acres and stores 7 TMC. The YSR government had laid the foundation for a barrage at Kanthanapally in 2009, but no progress was made for years.
The BRS government completed the Sammakka Barrage in three years, relocating it 20 km upstream to avoid submerging 12 tribal villages and 11,000 acres of tribal land. This redesign prevented submergence while stabilising 4.4 lakh acres under Sriramsagar Stage II and supporting historic tanks such as Ramappa, Ghanapuram, Laknavaram and Pakala.
The BRS government also re-engineered the Rajiv Dummugudem and Indirasagar Rudramakota projects, launched in 2005 under YSR’s Jala Yagnam. Following Andhra Pradesh’s annexation of seven mandals in 2014, these were merged into the Sitarama Lift Irrigation Scheme, initiated on February 16, 2018. It targets 6.74 lakh acres using 36.57 TMC, with 12.38 TMC stored in tanks.
The original Congress plan aimed at only 3.38 lakh acres with 27.72 TMC, limited by a mere 1.2 TMC storage capacity and environmental constraints, including permissions for an 18-km canal through the Kinnersani wildlife sanctuary. KCR’s redesign overcame these barriers, vastly expanding the project’s scope.
The collapse of two piers at Medigadda has been leveraged to discredit KCR’s legacy. On August 22, 2025, at the NWDA meeting in Hyderabad, the Revanth Reddy government’s endorsement of the Inchampalli Project is perceived as an attempt to marginalise Medigadda and redirect Godavari water to Andhra via Banakacharla, undermining Devadula and Sitarama. This jeopardises Telangana’s vision of a thriving, irrigated state, as articulated by K Chandrashekhar Rao: “Godavari and Krishna waters must nourish our fields, turning Telangana’s farmlands golden and fostering prosperity.”
Telangana’s people must counter these alleged moves to safeguard the state’s irrigation gains and fulfil KCR’s vision of a golden Telangana, averting a return to migration and hardship. Kaleshwaram is not merely infrastructure — it is the backbone of Telangana’s agricultural future.
— By V Prakash Rao, River Waters Activist and former Chairman of the Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation
