KHAMMAM: With the Bhakta Ramadasu Lift Irrigation (LI) project tentatively slated for commissioning on January 28, the executing agencies of the LI scheme have geared up to conduct the trial run of the first pump of the project near the Palair reservoir in Kusumanchi mandal in next one or two days.
The Paleru-Madhiripuram LI scheme, named after the famous saint composer Bhakta Ramadas, is fast nearing completion.
It envisages lifting of 5.50 TMC of water from the Palair balancing reservoir under the Nagarjunasagar left canal system to a height of 59 metres and dropping into DBM-60 of the main canal of the SRSP Stage-II project at Madhiripuram in Tirumalayapalem mandal.
Water to uplands
Ayacut contemplated under the LI project is 58,958 acres spread in Kusumanchi, Tirumalayapalem, Nelakondapalli (birthplace of Bhakta Ramadasu), Khammam rural and Mudigonda mandals in Khammam district and Dornakal of neighbouring Mahabubabad district.
The total cost of the scheme is estimated at ₹335.59 crore.
It includes ₹16 crore for land acquisition, ₹90.87 crore for construction of pump house, ₹32.44 crore towards cost of Indirasagar LIS motors and pumps and ₹131.31 crore for Rajivsagar LIS MS pressure main pipes, ₹30.84 crore for dedicated power sub-station, and ₹34.13 crore for miscellaneous expenditure, official sources said. And 128 acres had been acquired for the scheme in Palair constituency under Khammam revenue division.
Trial run
The Bhakta Ramadasu LI scheme, designed to meet the irrigation needs of the small and marginal farmers mostly belonging to weaker sections in the upland areas of Khammam division, has reached the final stage of completion, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Projects, Khammam, V Sudhakar told The Hindu . The dry run of the motor-1 of the pump house near the Palair reservoir has already been conducted, he said, adding that the trial run of the pump-1 of the project would be conducted in one or two days.
The project will be ready for commissioning in less than two weeks, he said.
Concerns on design
The CPI (M) district committee has raised concerns over the design of the project and alleged lack of consistency between the originally estimated and the presently projected expenditure on the project.
The party has also been insisting on inclusion of nine drought prone villages in the upland mandal of Tirumalayapalem under the ambit of the project. The issue came to the fore during the visit of CPI (M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram to the project site at Islavath Tanda as part of the ongoing 4000-km State-wide Mahajana Padayatra on Wednesday.
There is no consistency in the statements being issued by the persons at the helm of affairs and the officials over the originally estimated cost and the projected expenditure of the project, CPI (M) district committee secretary P. Venkateshwara Rao said.
The government should release a White Paper on the project, he demanded, underlying the need for harnessing the Godavari waters to fill the Palair reservoir to address the irrigation woes of farmers in upland areas of Khammam division.
