Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday visited the Kaleswaram irrigation project site and reviewed its progress, and instructed contractors and officials to complete all works before June 2018 in order to supply waters to many areas in the northern Telangana districts. Mr Rao was visiting the project site 19 months after laying the foundation stone. He expressed satisfaction over the progress of barrage works at Medigadda (Kaleswaram), Sundilla, Annaram, pump houses at Siripuram, Kannepalli and Golivada, but instructed the contractors to engage construction workers in three shifts a day to finish the task in time.
He said all works should be completed before the next flood season in Godavari, and asked police officials to provide adequate security at all the project sites bordering Maharashtra which has significant Maoist presence. Kaleswaram’s barrage structures are important for storage and reverse pumping of Godavari-Pranahita waters from Medigadda to provide irrigation facility to 18 lakh acres, besides supplying drinking water to thousands of villages in north Telangana. The Chief Minister, however, expressed displeasure at the tardy pace of work at Tupakulagudem barrage, which was taken up replacing the Kanthanapally barrage proposed earlier.
He also instructed the contractor to complete the coffer dam work as well as that on the main barrage. Mr Rao took stock of works at all the sites and spoke to officials of Telangana state government engineering department and the contractors of the respective works, and asked them to take up all works simultaneously, including barrage, sub-stations, pump houses and canals.
Director General of Police (DGP) M. Mahender Reddy, who accompanied Mr Rao on the visit, told the Chief Minister that the police department will use drone cameras to oversee the security aspects of projects and come in handy to check the progress of works. Ministers T. Harish Rao, Eteal Rajender, MPs B. Vinod Kumar, Balka Suman, Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) S.K. Joshi, T-Genco, Transco chairman-cum-managing director D. Prabhakar Rao were also present during the Chief Minister’s visit to project sites.
