Telangana, Andhra Pradesh fight for tourism service at Nagarjunasagar dam

Hyderabad: Boating by tourists in Nagarjunasagar dam triggered a fresh row between TS and AP on Saturday. AP tourism and forest department officials obstructed boats from TS, alleging that they were operating without permission.
These boats were stopped at Nagarjunakonda, the Buddhist site, which falls under the jurisdiction of AP. They took the boats and staff into their possession. This led to heated exchanges.

TS tourism which recently launched boating operations in Nagarjunasagar took tourists in two boats for the first time on Friday. AP officials stopped them arguing that they entered AP jurisdiction without any permission.

Tourists stranded whole day
Tourists who started at 11 am were stranded in boats till 6.30 pm. AP officials sent back tourists and staff to TS boating points later, while keeping one more TS boat under their possession. Local TRS leaders who learned of the development rushed to the dam and held a dharna raising slogans agai-nst AP government, which led to a traffic jam in the area.

TS has been operating boats from the left bank with jetties built there. This is because the existing launch station, which has five boating points, went to AP after state bifurcation. Since a majority of tourists to Nagarjunasagar were coming from Hyderabad, TS built its own launch station on its side. This is being opposed by AP, which fears that it will lose revenue.

The revenue from boating amounts to Rs 2 crore annually. TS was losing its share for want of launch stations. TS launch point manager A. Sathyam said they had approvals for boating from the Centre and the irrigation department. Still AP officials created an unnecessary controversy, he said.