Uttam Kumar Reddy calls for Phase II desiltation of major irrigation projects

Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has called for immediate Phase II desiltation of major irrigation projects to restore storage capacity. He said proposals would be placed before the State Cabinet and stressed coordinated efforts to revive ageing infrastructure

Hyderabad: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday stressed the need for immediate initiation of Phase-II desiltation programmes across major irrigation projects and said it was essential to restore lost storage capacity.

At a meeting with Irrigation department officials, farmers and their representatives from the SRSP Stage II ayacut districts at the Secretariat, the Minister described sedimentation as a “major nationwide problem”. It was affecting reservoirs from the historic Bhakra Nangal Dam to Telangana’s Sriramsagar Project (SRSP), he said.

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He emphasised the need to tackle it under the national framework for desiltation and sediment management. He urged coordinated Central and State efforts to revive ageing irrigation infrastructure.

“Sedimentation has severely impacted storage in projects like SRSP, where capacity has dropped from the original around 120 TMC to approximately 80 TMC due to decades of silt buildup,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

The Minister said that proposals for taking up the desiltation programme would be placed before the State Cabinet for approvals and funding.

Highlighting ongoing efforts, he stated that desiltation of the Kaddam (Kadem) project was successfully taken up in the first phase using modern dredging techniques on a pilot basis.

“The executing agency is facing difficulties in marketing the extracted sand as it has limited local demand, and the long distance to markets like Hyderabad makes transportation not remunerative, affecting disposal and cost recovery,” he said.