Telangana urges central agency to continue funding PRLIS

HYDERABAD: Telangana government has shot off a letter to the Power Finance Corporation to continue loans for “unapproved” Palamuru-RangaReddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) at least under the component “drinking water scheme”.
The Corporation had asked the state why it should continue to extend loans to PRLIS after the Centre’s recent gazette notification taking over irrigation projects on Krishna and Godavari termed the project as “unapproved”.
“The state government explained to the central Corporation that there are two components in the project. The first priority is to complete work on supplying drinking water to over 1,200 villages and the second is to provide water to irrigate 12.30 lakh acres,” said a senior irrigation official.
The Corporation had earlier approved a loan of Rs 6,160 crore for PRLIS and released about Rs 3,000 crore as the first instalment. After the Centre’s gazette notification, the Corporation has been sitting on the release of remaining loan component.
The Andhra Pradesh government too has raised questions with the Union Jal Shakti ministry and the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) over loans being extended to “unapproved projects” by central government agencies.
The state government has been executing work on PRLIS with an estimated cost of Rs 35,200 crore to supply drinking water to over 1,200 villages and irrigation supply to 12.30 lakh acres in Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy, Narayanpet, Vikarabad, Nagarkurnool and Nalgonda districts.
The target is to divert 90 TMC flood water from Srisailam reservoir in 90 days every year through PRLIS. There is no threat of diversion of any assured water supply meant for Andhra Pradesh, officials said. The construction of reservoirs is under progress and experts have not ruled out the possibility of the project cost escalating to over Rs 50,000 crore by the time it is completed.
In its letter to the Corporation, the state government informed that even the public hearing for environment clearance for PRLIS was held recently. While the state government is expecting to get environment clearance for the project at the earliest, it urged the Corporation to continue the loans “under drinking water component” until then.
The state government also faces “loan-crunch” for its other projects which have been listed as “unapproved” by the gazette notification of the Centre.