World’s biggest lift irrigation project begins flowing in India

Hyderabad: In what is being described as the world’s largest such irrigation project, pumping stations have started lifting river water toward parched land in southern India.

Some of the 19 pump stations, on the Godavari river in Telangana state, began lifting water on Friday to a record height of 618 metres.

The project is aimed at irrigating nearly 1.6 million hectares, tapping floodwaters that would ordinarily just flow to the sea.

The project was built at an estimated cost of Rs880 billion (Dh46.4 billion) in three years.

The chief minister of Telangana state, K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), said the project is the world’s largest using lift irrigation.

Experts say the Colorado River in the United States and the ‘Great Man-made River’ in Libya had the world’s largest lift irrigations projects previously.

At a colourful ceremony held at Medigadda in Bhupalapally district, about 250km north of Hyderabad, KCR inaugurated the project on river Godavari by opening the gates of Medigadda Barrage and released the water into the canal system.

State governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, chief ministers of neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy and Devendra Fadnavis also attended the programme.

Earlier the chief minister, along with his wife Shobha Rao, performed special rituals with 40 Hindu priests as part of the inauguration.

KCR along with the other two chief ministers and the governor also performed prayers of the river Godavari.

Later the CM also inaugurated the pump station at nearby Kanepally village.

It is one of the 19 pump stations of the project and which will pump the water of Godavari at various places to the record height of 618 meters to irrigate about 1.6 million hectares of land in parched areas of 12 districts.

Another pump house at Annaram was inaugurated by deputy chief minister Mohammad Mahmoud Ali.

Chief Minister Rao said the project, with an estimated cost of Rs880 billion, was built in a record period of three years.

“Never before has any project of this size been built in such a short period of time,” KCR said.

The project was designed to lift in multi phases 147 tmcft of water from the Godavari river.

Apart from irrigation, the multi purpose project will also supply 40 tmcft of water for drinking purposes to the state capital Hyderabad and many other areas.

It will also supply another 16 tmcft of water for industrial needs.

The unique features of the project include utilisation of 139MW maximum capacity pumps that the state government officials say have not been used anywhere else in the world, and which will initially lift 2 tmcft of water every day.

As part of the project engineers have built three barrages, 1,531-kilometre-long gravity canals and 203km of underground tunnels, 19 pump houses and 20 reservoirs to lift a total of 147 tmcft water.

“This project will be a game changer and bring prosperity to the entire state,” the chief minister said.

B. Srinivas Reddy, director of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, termed the project as an “engineering marvel”.

“This is by far the largest lift scheme in the world. The project requires 4992MW electricity in the first phase for pumping two tmcft of water.

Experts say that so far Colorado lift scheme in the United States and the Great Manmad River in Egypt were among the world’s largest such projects.

— Kaleshwaram irrigation project was a dream of the people of drought prone Telangana region for decades. Initially the Congress government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had planned it as Pranahita-Chevella project in 2004.

— After formation of Telangana state in 2014, Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao redesigned and renamed it as Kaleshwaram project at the confluence of river Godavari and its tributary Pranahita.

— During 2016-18 the project got various clearances while work was in progress.

— The inter state dispute with Maharashtra over sharing of Godavari water was resolved in March 2016.

— May 2, 2016: KCR laid the foundation stone of the project at Kanapally village in Bhupalapally district

— First phase was completed in three years and inaugurated on June 21. The entire project was expected to be completed by the end of next year.

— While Telangana is rich in water resources with two major rivers — the Krishna and Godavari — passing through it, throughout history the region has been water-starved and drought-prone.

— The topography is such that, while the rivers flow at a lower plane, most of Telangana’s lands are at a higher altitude.

— The Godavari, which originates in Maharashtra, covers a stretch of 199km in Telangana before it enters Andhra Pradesh. But a whopping 3000 tmcft of its water goes waste into the sea in the absence of irrigation infrastructure.

— The challenge of topography forced the planners to opt for an irrigation system in which the water could be lifted to the higher levels. The failure of proper use of water resources for the development of Telangana was one of the major reasons for triggering the demand for separate state.

— Though many plans were drawn they remained on paper till formation of the state in Jun3 2014 and the government led by K. Chandrasekhar Rao decided to go for a mega lift irrigation project on Godavari with a network of reservoirs, canals and tunnels and massive pump houses to lift the water to a maximum height of 618 meters, a record of sorts in the world.