Contracting agency will repair KLIS pump houses, govt won’t foot the bill, says TS Finance Minister

HYDERABAD:  Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday said that the State government will not spend even a single rupee on repair works of damaged pump houses of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), instead it is the contracting agency which would take care of repairs.

Replying to a short debate on ‘Excessive rainfall in the State Floods in Godavari river basin’ in the State Legislative Council, Harish Rao said that the Kaleshwaram pump houses were submerged due to a natural disaster and not because of any human error.

Stating that the Godavari witnessed unprecedented floods, a phenomenon that occurs once in 500 years, the Minister said: “The Annaram pump houses will be restarted in the third week of September and the Medigadda pump houses in the last week of October.”

He also assured that sufficient water would be supplied from Kaleshwaram to the farmers in Rabi season. 
Harish said that the Godavari area received 248 mm rainfall from July 8 to 13 this year, which was five times more than the 43 mm rainfall that occurred during the same period last year.

“When the Kaleshwaram project was designed, the government studied the occurrence of floods in the last 500 years. Godavari received highest floods of 24 lakh cusecs in 1986. But, this year, the Godavari received 29 lakh cusecs,” he explained.  

‘Nothing wrong with the design of the project’
Stating that out of 21 pump houses of Kaleshwaram, only Medigadda and Annaram pump houses were submerged, Harish Rao said that there was nothing wrong with the design of the project