Water travel time reduced by 24 hours

Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao has informed a World Bank team that the travel time of water to reach Palair Reservoir from Nagarjunasagar got reduced by 24 hours on account of modernisation work. It used to take 72 hours for water to reach Palair Reservoir from Nagarjunasagar prior to grounding of the work but, now, it is only 48 hours, Mr. Rao told the delegation.

Within the territorial jurisdiction of Telangana, the Minister said Nagarjunasagar had an ayacut of 6.40 lakh acres. Of this, the area that did not get water from the project was only 1.64 lakh acres. The gap in ayacut of the project after the work was taken up came down from 25% to 5%, a release said

He also said 98% of the modernisation work within Telangana was completed and the remaining would be completed by July. Citing an example of the success of the work, he said lining of the Madhira branch canal was completed for 14.5 km out of the canal length extending up to 31.5 km. Now, water was supplied to 58,895 acres under this canal.

The World Bank team expressed satisfaction at the execution of work. Its members said they could see cheer on the faces of farmers.