Re-engineering helped reduce land acquisition for Kanthanapalli Barrage from 11,000 acres to 233 acres, said Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao here on Tuesday.
Responding to a query in the Legislative Council, he said the barrage location was shifted to Tupakulagudem to minimise land acquisition and diversion of forest land and displacement of tribal families. Not even one family would be displaced and also resulted in savings of ₹224 crore, he said.
The objective behind shifting the barrage was also to increase availability of water from 38.5 tmcft to 60 tmcft and once barrage was completed by September 2018, about 6 tmcft would be released every month for 10 months and water could be provided to 6 lakh acres of ayacut in Warangal district.
It was originally planned to give water to 5.5 lakh acres of ayacut under Devadula, but there the water allocation was only 38.5 tmcft and it would not be enough to supply drinking water to Warangal, he explained.
Though the scheduled completion of barrage is September next year, if some pipelines were laid at 72-meter level, water could be lifted in the next three months, he added.
The barrage would also help in power generation and the TSGenco would construct the power plant of 10 units each with 24 MW.
Mr. Harish Rao said in addition to 11 projects that were included under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme, another 28 projects including Vatti Vagu in Asifabad was added now under the Irrigation and Command Area Development Department.
The agencies were also short-listed to prepare Detailed Project Reports. For this 50% of funds would be sanctioned by the Centre, 50% by the State. Telangana got highest AIBP projects in the country, he said.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi member P. Satish Kumar said Vatti Vagu project was envisaged to provide water to 25,000 acres but due to neglect by previous government, water was not reaching even about 5,000 acres.