AP to complete 2 irrigation projects before split: Minister

The projects - Pulichintala and Yellampalli - named after their location in coastal Andhra and Telangana respectively entail a total construction cost of over Rs 2,500 cr

The Andhra Pradesh government would complete two irrigation projects, one in Telangana and the other in coastal Andhra, with a combined capacity to utilise 69 tmc (thousand million cubic ft) of water ahead of the state bifurcation, irrigation minister P Sudarshan Reddy said on Tuesday.

The two projects — Pulichintala and Yellampalli — named after their location entail a total construction cost of over Rs 2,500 crore. Pulichintala has a storage capacity of 45 tmc and designed to provide  water to 1.3 million acres in the four coastal districts of West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam.

The second project has a storage capacity of 24 tmc and is designed to lift a total of 63 tmc to provide irrigation facility to 600,000 acres in Karimnagar, Warangal, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Medak districts in the Telangana region.

In addition, it was also decided to lift 7 tmc of water for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)'s power project located in Karimnagar district.  

Both the projects are expected to cost almost equally.

Responding to a question on the chief minister’s comments that Telangana would dry up if the state gets divided, the minister said that was not going to happen.

“We were able to provide water to the farmers even under the flood-based projects in both the regions as there had been copious rains this time. Therefore, it all depends on the availability of water irrespective of the bifurcation,” the minister said.