Water for every acre in Godavari districts my lifetime dream: Naidu

Polavaram: Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday reiterated that giving

water

to every acre in the two

Godavari

districts was his lifetime dream.

Talking to reporters while inspecting the Purushottapatnam lift irrigation scheme, Naidu said 3,000 tmcft to 5,000 tmcft of water was going waste into the sea from Godavari river every year. The government had planned to utilise this water through fast track projects, he said, and added that Pattiseema, Pushkaram and Purushottapatnam lift irrigation schemes were planned accordingly. The Godavari water was now being supplied to the East and West Godavari districts, besides Krishna delta and Visakhapatnam city, he said.

The chief minister said his government was working hard on completing the prestigious Polavaram project by 2019 and said he had decided to give water on gravity by 2018. He said the government had given 6 tmcft of water to Krishna delta through Pattiseema project in 2015 and 55 tmcft in 2016.

This year, the government supplied water to Krishna delta in the first week of June for the first time, thereby helping the farmers to start sowing of seedbeds and start the kharif season early, he said. Water was also supplied to Godavari delta on June 1, he added.

The CM further said the Seeleru project was delegated to the State along with seven mandals after bifurcation. The water from this project too was being utilised judiciously, he said.

Referring to the Purushottapatnam lift irrigation scheme, the chief minister said the project is aimed at lifting 3,500 cusecs of water from Godavari and pump it to the Polavaram Left Canal. It would be again pumped into Yeleru project, providing water to 67,614 acres of land. He further said the Purushottapatnam scheme would also supply 10 tmcft of water to Visakhapatnam for both drinking and industrial use.

The chief minister also visited the Polavaram project site and inspected the progress of the work. He said the project required Rs 32,000 crore for rehabilitation package alone while Rs 16,000 crore was required for completion of the project. He said the State had spent Rs 3,500 crore so far on the project of which the Central government had agreed to release Rs 1,000 crore. On the occasion, he also handed over appointment letters to newly-appointed assistant engineers of the Water Resources Department.

Deputy CM N Chinarajappa, minister for water resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Rajamahendravaram MP M Murali Mohan, MLC Reddi Subrahmanyam, irrigation principal secretary Sasibhushan, and engineer-in-chief Venkateswara Rao were present.


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