Hyderabad: Union Jal Shakti ministry advisor Vedire Sriram alleged that the previous government had failed in all aspects of the construction of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) including the planning, design, investigation, modeling, quality control, operation and maintenance.
On Tuesday, he made a power-point presentation before the PC Ghose Commission of inquiry into the construction of the project, including its three barrages.
Speaking with media, he said that Rs 12,000 crore spent on the infrastructure created for the originally designed Pranahitha-Chevella project was not used in the redesigned KLIS, rendering the people’s money wasted.
He said that the responsibility of the Central Water Commission (CWC) was only related to the availability of water and any inter-state dispute that could arise.
“There was 195 tmcft water availability and there were no inter-state disputes. That was all that CWC was concerned with. The design, plan, investigation and modeling were appraised by the Central Designs Organisation (CDO) of the State, for which CWC doesn’t give approval,” he said.
“Without finishing the modeling the design was prepared. Without any design construction was taken up, and after the construction the detailed project report was updated. The quality control was not proper. These were the observations made in the National Dam Safety Authority’s (NDSA) report,” he pointed out.
He also informed the Commission that by changing the location for drawing water from Tummidihatti to Medigadda, the project’s cost shot up by Rs 80,000 crore, but there was hardly an increase in the ayacut of the project by 2 lakh acres.
From 16.4 lakh ayacut in the originally designed Pranahitha-Chevella project, he said that the DPR of the redesigned KLIS showed that the ayacut was 18.25 lakh acres. He also said that the maintenance cost of the project for drawing water was coming to around Rs 11,000 crore per annum.
He also told the Commission that the present State government seemed to have not acted on the interim report of the NDSA on ascertaining the reasons for the project’s failure, and to do thorough technical investigations on all aspects of the project.
He told the Commission that he will submit the affidavits with all the information presented before it within a week.
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