State govt to seek national project status for Upper Krishna Project

The State government will soon submit a proposal to the Centre seeking national project status for Upper Krishna Project (UKP), one of the biggest irrigation projects in the country, said, Shivayogi Kalasad, Commissioner Upper Krishna Project (Resettlement and Rehabilitation).

The commissioner of UKP told Deccan Herald, "The Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd (KBJNL) has prepared a proposal seeking national project status to UKP and the same has been sent to Department of Water Resources. The State government will soon forward the proposal to the Centre."

If the project gets national project tag, the works which are going at a snail's pace for the last four decades, will gather momentum and the project would be completed soon.

After the implementation of Phase-3 of the project, 5,30,475 hectares of dry land will be covered under irrigation. As many as 150 villages in Mumbai Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka region will get drinking water.

Further, the hydel power plant has the capacity to generate 210 MW. The project has all the markings of a national project. Hence, the Centre should grant national project status to the UKP, Kalasad explained.

The UKP Commissioner (Resettlement and Rehabilitation) said the implementation of Phase-3 would leave 20 villages in Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts submerged, affecting at least one lakh people. A total of 94,640 acres of land in 192 villages will get submerged.

The authorities would need huge amounts of money for the rehabilitation of the displaced. If the Centre join hands with State government, the project would be executed at the earliest, he said.

“The national project status will fetch additional funds to the UKP which inturn would expedite the ongoing works. Also, it would solve the issues pertaining to Krishna river water sharing between the riparian states Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” Kalasad added.