HYDERABAD: Foreseeing the submergence of Bhadrachalam Temple and Parnasala in the backwaters of the Polavaram Project in Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana State government has decided to conduct a study on the extent to which the backwaters will spread.

The TRS government has been vocal about the possible disruption of normal life in human habitations surrounding the scheme and has repeatedly urged the Central government to study the effects of the project on villages located in Telangana.

“As the Central government did not come forward to address the issue, the State government has decided to conduct the study on its own,” an official said.

“We will engage retired engineers who worked in the inter-state wing of the Irrigation Department to study the backwaters of Polavaram,” an official said, adding that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has given his nod for the study.

The project has a flood discharge capacity of 35 lakh cusecs. “If flood discharge touches 50 lakh cusecs, there is every danger of Telangana villages submerging in the backwaters. We have to protect Bhadrachalam Temple and Parnasala,” an official said while stating that the government’s own study would be taken up shortly.

“If the flood discharge is 35 lakh cusecs, an estimated 100 villages will submerge in Telangana and a 50 lakh-cusec discharge would mean the inundation of over 270 villages,” an official in the Irrigation Department explained.

With heavy discharge of water, the full reservoir level (FRL) of Polavaram too will increase from 150 ft to 170 ft. “It will have a parabolic impact on our villages,” the official pointed out. The huge discharge into Godavari from Polavaram will adversely impact the river’s tributaries. Floods too will pose danger to villages in Telangana, he explained. The State government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in July against the Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project, he recalled.