What is the Kaleshwaram Project? Check Details Here

The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project faced a major backlash when  YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) president YS Sharmila took her fight against the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project in the southern state to Delhi on Tuesday.

 She called it “India’s biggest irrigation scam" that plundered Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

During the protest, the President was detained by Delhi police for marching toward Parliament from Jantar Mantar along with others.

The group had intended an uproar against Telangana’s KCR government over the alleged scam.

Kaleshwaram Project: Details and description

• The project is built on the Godavari river at Kaleshwaram village in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district. 
•  It is known to be the largest multi-stage lift irrigation project in the world.
• Covering a distance of 500 km across 13 districts in Telangana. 
• The aim of the project is to produce 240 TMC of water for irrigation, drinking, and industrial uses.
• With 20 reservoirs and seven links, the project sets each link to convey the water from a source to a storage system and/or distributory network system to irrigate the ayacut. 
• According to the data present the project is being built at a cost of Rs 80,000 crore.

Kaleshwaram Project: History

• In 2019 the Kaleshwaram project was inaugurated.
• It is an offshoot of Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project launched in 2005 by the then chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, father of YS Sharmila.
• In 2014, after the bifurcation, it became impossible to stick to the original design.
•  Maharashtra objected against the project to the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) near Tummidi Hetti across river Pranahita as large areas were getting submerged in their state.
• Subsequently, in 2016, Telangana and Maharashtra reached an agreement.
• After Keeping these changes and suggestions of CWC in mind, the original project was redesigned and split up into Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita project and the Kaleshwaram project. 
• The former is in the Adilabad district while the latter is in the Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

Kaleshwaram Project: Key Features 

• For the lift irrigation project, its pumps are its most important features. 
• This kind of irrigation is unlike others as the water is not transported by natural gravity, but has to be lifted through pumps. 
• Kaleshwaram project is said to have the world’s largest underground pumping station, situated at 470 feet below the earth’s surface. 
• The station has seven ‘Bahubali’ motors that can pump 2,376 metric tonnes of water.

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