The Musi project which has been on a temporary stoplog, following washing away of one of its regulatory gates in October 2019 due to heavy inflows, is all set for replacement this week.
Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy broke a coconut as inaugural ritual, starting the installation works on Monday.
The project, situated in Kethepally mandal in Nalgonda, was completed by 1963 to provide irrigation for 41, 000 acres. Since 1973, the ayacut was changed to 30,000 acres – 15,230 acres on the left canal in Suryapet, and 14,770 acres in Miryalaguda and Nalgonda.
Post-2014, as part of the project’s modernisation works, its 12 crest gates and eight regulatory gates were replaced, among other works.
However, within a few years, in October 2019, when the project recorded maximum inflows from the upstream, one of its regulatory gate failed and got washed away.
The water level in the project on the fateful day was around 644 feet, just short of its full reservoir level of 645 feet and 4.43 tmc storage capacity.
Mr. Reddy, speaking at the project site said the TRS government is committed to the welfare of farmers in providing irrigation for two crop seasons in a year.
“Within three days the works will be complete, and not a drop from the project will go waste. Even when the gate failed in October, we did not let water go waste as a stoplog gate was put in place soon,” he said.
Mr. Reddy blamed the previous governments for the gate fail. He said the project was neglected for decades, which led to rusting of components, leakages and eventually drainage of water and loss to farmers in the ayacut.