Telengana’s Kaleshwaram project dedicated to nation

Kaleshwaram project, the brainchild of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, will harness the flood waters of the Godavari, to turn the parched and barren outback of Telangana drought-proof.

Built at a cost of Rs80,500-crore, the Kaleshwaram project will support Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha schemes designed to provide drinking water to many villages and improve the capacities of tanks.

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao switched on the first motor at Kannepally while inaugurating the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) at Medigadda.

Chandrasekhar Rao is responsible for conceiving, designing and execution of Kaleshwaram, which is now widely considered as “world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation scheme”. 

“I am the achiever,” the chief minister said at a recent news conference.

The state government is also conducting 'homams' at Medigadda and Kannepally pump house on Friday. According to sources, the priests will perform “Jalasaya Prathistanga Homam” by invoking Rigveda mantras. The 'homam' is intended to pray mother Godavari to bless its children with plentiful of water.

The project seeks to divert 180 TMC of Godavari flood water first to Sripada Sagar Yellampalli barrage and then to Mallanna Sagar from the Pranahita confluence point.

The project will tap waters of the Godavari by reverse pumping and storage, thereby facilitating agriculture on over 38 lakh acres. The project will create about 18 lakh acres of new ayacut, helping rejuvenate thousands of tanks, providing water for industries, and supplying drinking water including to Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The project’s mega pumps and motors lift water 100-600 meters and carry it 400 km through the main canal. According to the project engineers, until now the Mubarak Pumping Station, built as part of the Toshka Project in Egypt in 2005 was an engineering wonder.

Major components of the Kaleshwaram project — construction of barrages and pump houses — have been completed in three years and the construction of reservoirs are on fast-track. The world’s largest pumping station has been set up underground and has a 81-km tunnel running between Yellampalli barrage and Mallanna Sagar reservoir. The tunnel can carry 2 TMC water (22,000 cusecs) continuously.

The world’s biggest pump house in Package-8 with seven pumps of 139 MW each has been deployed underground, along with eight pumping stations located 150 metres underground. This pumping station has five floors with each floor housing lifting operations.

Barrages have been constructed at Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla, from which water will be moved to fill Yellampalli and Sriram Sagar Projects. With this, the Godavari will be alive on a 199-km stretch in Telangana.

The construction of barrages and reservoirs and continuous pumping of water stored in the Godavari has saved the government the hassles of land acquisition and re-settlement of people.