Naidu mulls over linking Krishna delta with Godavari

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday favoured interlinking the Godavari river with the Krishna delta to stabilise acreage at a review meeting with irrigation department officials here.

According to estimates, the lift irrigation project to pump flood water from the Godavari will cost Rs 1,272 crore. Power generation will cost Rs 258 crore as it involves drawing 77 TMC of water from the river. Operation and maintenance charges, meanwhile, will be Rs 26 crore per year. “This river linkage would be beneficial for Rayalaseema to use water for domestic and industrial purposes,” he said.

The chief minister directed officials to expedite pending projects in the state and clear bottlenecks. He asked them to complete work on the Polavaram main canal before the next cropping season and suggested that the possibility of linking the Krishna and Penna rivers, with or without the Buckingham canal, should be considered.

The chief minister said he would talk to central government officials on getting support through national river linkage projects, which also include Andhra Pradesh. He also asked officials to complete the Vamsadhara, Thotapalli, Veligonda, Handi-Neeva and Gaaleru Nagari projects at the earliest. While Phase 1 of Vamsadhara has been completed, phase 2 is in progress and will have the capacity to irrigate 45,000 acres. The first phase of the Thotapalli project will cover 1.2 lakh acres and will be operational by next year.