Dinakar Hails Godavari–Nallamala Link Drinking Water Project
Dinakar said out of the total 1,769 villages in Prakasam district, 1,009 villages have been identified as fluoride-affected. The Veligonda project will resolve this problem and supply safe drinking water through interlinking of rivers.
Vijayawada: Twenty-Point Programme committee chairman Lanka Dinakar on Thursday said Godavari River water will flow to Nallamala Sagar (Veligonda Project Reservoir) via the Bollapalli Reservoir, thereby supplying safe drinking water to 60 lakh people, apart from irrigating 7 lakh acres across the drought-prone and fluoride-affected areas of Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa districts.
Dinakar said out of the total 1,769 villages in Prakasam district, 1,009 villages have been identified as fluoride-affected. The Veligonda project will resolve this problem and supply safe drinking water through interlinking of rivers.
The committee chairman said the government’s Godavari-Nallamala Sagar link initiative will ensure drinking water for 60 lakh people, irrigate 7 lakh acres and supply adequate water to meet industrial needs in the Donakonda and Kanigiri regions. As a result, the area, once known for migration of people for livelihoods, will become a region that will attract migrants from other regions for employment.
Mentioning the background of the river linking project, Dinakar explained that on January 1, 2025, he had submitted a detailed representation to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, explaining that bringing Godavari waters to Veligonda reservoir will enable supply of safe drinking water for 23 lakh people, benefiting the fluoride-affected and drought-hit mandals of Kanigiri, Yerragondapalem, Markapuram (Prakasam), Donakonda, Marripudi, Chimakurthy (Prakasam), Udayagiri (Nellore) and Mydukur (Kadapa).
The committee chairman said the CM reacted positively to this project. Subsequently, a meeting of Irrigation minister Nimmala Ramanaidu, engineer-in-chief and senior officials discussed the river linking project in detail. This led to preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) on the river-linking project.
Following this, Chandrababu Naidu announced approval of the Godavari-Nallamala Sagar Link Project on March 8, 2025 at a meeting in Markapuram. Once the project is implemented, Dinakar said, people of the region will forever remember the great work done by the TDP-BJP-Jana Sena alliance government.