Anantapur: The water resources department on Tuesday sanctioned four community lift-cum-drip irrigation (CLDI) projects in Anantapur district with an estimated cost of Rs 899.20 crore.
The government sanctioned new projects after the APSIDC joint managing director submitted a report stating that community lift-cum-drip irrigation (CLDI) is the best solution to increase the irrigated area in rain-fed areas.
In this model, water is lifted from its source, conveyed in a conduit up to the field of individual farmers and delivered to the root zone of each crop through drip irrigation solution.
By using the CLDI system, irrigated area can be increased up to 2.4 times as compared to the canal irrigation, which could lead to an increase in the farmer’s income.
Karnataka is already using this irrigation system at Ramthal. The government order said that the maximum water could be saved through the projects.
The Chief Engineer (P) Anantapur will be the implementing authority, who would start work on the project immediately.
The APSIDC joint MD has submitted four proposals to irrigate a total ayacut of about 20,000 hectares under the community drip irrigation using the water from Mid Pennar, PABR and Jeedipalii reservoirs.
This project is proposed to irrigate an ayacut of 5,193 hectares through this model by using water from Mid Pennar project in Urava-konda mandal. The proposed cost of this project is Rs 214.40 crore with Rs 4,12,785 average cost per hectare. The total project area is di-vided into 30 zones. Eight villages of Uravakonda mandal will gain from the proposed project.
The second project is proposed to irrigate an ayacut of 5,093 hectares through lift-cum-drip irrigation system by lifting water from the PABR project. This project’s proposed cost is Rs 233.80 crore with Rs 4,61,867 average cost per hectare.
This project will help five villages — Kowk-untla, Mylarampalle, Y. Rampuram, Budigumma and Ramsagaram of Uravakonda mandal.
The third project is proposed to irrigate an ayacut of 4873.4 hectares using water from PABR (right) project, with an expenditure of '220.00 crore. It would cost '4.5 lakh a hectare
It will benefit four villages — Korrakodu, Jay-apuram, Cholasamu-dram and Muddalap-uram of Kudair mandal.
The Community Drip Irrigation Project-IV at Jeedipalli could irrigate an ayacut of 5,042 Ha by lifting water from PABR project. Its total cost would be '231 crore and per hectare cost would be Rs 4.57 lakh. It will benefit six villages — Ramas-agaram, Ankampalli, Konampalle, Duddekunta, Thagguparthy and Budi-gumma of Beluguppa mandal.
