First honour: Irrigation project gets heritage tag

HYDERABAD: For the first time in the country, an irrigation anicut and a lake have been recognized as heritage structures by international agencies.
Sadarmatt anicut located in Medampally in Nirmal district and Pedda Cheruvu in Kamareddy district have been nominated as heritage structures at the 69th International Executive Council meeting of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID 2018) held in Saskatoon, Canada last month.

According to irrigation department, the Sadarmatt anicut was built during 1891-92 across the Godavari river on the left arm on down stream of Sriram Sagar Project near Medampally village in Nirmal. The anicut was built only for irrigation purpose to provide water to 13,100 acres with left flank canal running for length of 21,530 kms and Sadarmatt L.F main canal tailend distributary running for length of 12 kms and right channel length of 7.5 kms. Other Kaddam feeder channel running for length of 3.5 kms. While major crop being irrigated under Sadarmatt is paddy (contributing 80% of irrigated area), the other major crops are maize and turmeric.

Pedda Cheruvu in Kamareddy situated one km towards South West direction of Kamareddy town, was built by the Nizams in 1897. The cheruvu weir length is 145 metres and bund covers about 1800 metres. The extent of the lake is also huge with 860 acres. The lake water capacity is 175 mcft. Officials said currently the lake water is being utilized for providing drinking water to Kamareddy town. The state government has taken up restoration of the lake under Mission Kakatiya Phase II.

The Central Water Commission has informed the state government that the award and plaque have been received by the member secretary, Indian National Committee on Surface Water, on behalf of Telangana, as Indian representation. The plaque will be handed over to the government representative in Delhi. Telangana government has been asked to nominate a person to receive the plaque. Irrigation minister T Harish Rao expressed happiness over the recognition to irrigation structures of Telangana. He said the government was committed for protection and restoration of lakes and irrigation structures in the state.