TRS govt to provide irrigation facilities to 1.20 cr acres

The TRS government in Telangana would provide irrigation facilities to 1.20 crore acres by completing various projects, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said here on Tuesday.

"The TRS government is 100 per cent going to realize a Telangana where 1.20 crore acres have irrigation facility with bountiful crops," he told reporters after undertaking visit to the Kaleswaram Lift Irrigation project.

The Kaleswaram project was launched in June in the presence of Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh Devendra Fadnavis and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy respectively.

Rao dismissed opposition criticism that the Kaleswram project has incurred huge expenditure on electricity.

"Some say, are you going to spend this many crores of Rupees, what will be the current (electricity) bill...The current bill to be paid exactly for taking 400 TMC would be Rs 4,992 crore. We are asking it to be reduced," he said.

Rao undertook an aerial view of the Kaleswaram project site in view of heavy inflows into Godavari river following rainfall in its catchment areas.

He said he was happy that the project,aimed at irrigating 45 lakh acres, supplying water for industry and providing drinking water to 80 per cent of Telangana has been completed within a short span of time, an official release said.

Rao instructed irrigation officials to be alert over the maintenance of Kaleswaram project barrages as lakhs of cusecs of floodwater was flowing in from the Pranahita river, a subsidiary of the Godavari, the release added.