KCR to visit Nalgonda today

Nalgonda, once a parched and one of the most backward districts in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh with fluorosis also playing havoc among the people, is fast emerging as a district to reckon with in Telangana State on various fronts. The initiatives of the State government, particularly Mission Bhagiratha, have not only ensured that the district is free of the fluorosis problem but also accelerated development by several notches.

In a further fillip to the rapidly developing irrigation and agriculture sectors in the district, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, in a record of sorts, will be laying the foundation stone for 13 lift irrigation (LI) schemes at Nellikal on Wednesday.

The erstwhile Nalgonda district, which had just 2.5 lakh acres under irrigation before the bifurcation in 2014, has taken a quantum leap in adding additional ayacut in the past six years, zooming past the 6 lakh acre mark. These 13 LI schemes would add an ayacut of 1.30 lakh acres, including stabilisation that would solve the tail-end problems of branch canals and major distributaries on the Nagarjuna Sagar Left Bank Canal (NSLBC).

The Nellikal Lift Irrigation Scheme on the foreshores of the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir in Tirumalagiri-Sagar mandal is to irrigate 4,175 acres covering drought-prone Erracheruvuthanda, Pilligundlathanda, Jalthanda, Mulathanda and Nellikal villages. The hydrological clearance has been accorded for utilisation of 259.72 MCFT of water to irrigate the 4,175 acres for kharif Irrigated Dry (ID) crops, official sources told.

The distributary 8 and 9 (D8&9) LI project is designed for ID crops since farmers in head reaches were cultivating paddy, which resulted in water not reaching the ayacut of 7,163 acres. The project envisages laying pipelines to supply water by pump to distributary 8&9 to the



tail-end ayacut covering tribal villages of Voorabavi thanda, Chalakurthi, Chintapalli, Ramannagudem, Kunkuduchettu thanda, Bunuthala of Peddavoora mandal, Gat thanda, Thutipeta thanda, Yellapuram, Srirampuram, Alwal, Rangundla and Konerupuram of Thirumalagiri mandal.

The Dunnapothulagandi-Balnepally-Champlathanda LIS at Chityala village of Adavidevulapally will facilitate drawing of water from the Haliya river to irrigate 12,239 acres. It will supplement the tail-end ayacut of 6,300 acres of the Mudimanikyam major distributary besides 5,939 acres of the new ayacut covering Mulkacherla, Ulsaipalem, Champlathanda, Jilakarakuntathanda, Balnepally, Kotha Nandikonda, Adavidevulapally and Chityala.

The Keshavapuram-Kondrapole LIS on the right bank of the Musi river near Keshavapuram in Damarcherla mandal will supplement tail-end ayacut of 5,875 acres localised from the NSLBC for Kharif wet crops in Keshavapuram and Kondrapole villages, with tail-end ayacut not being irrigated as they are upland from the canal.

The Bothalapalem-Wadapally LIS near Wadapally will stabilise tail-end ayacut of 5,210 acres in Wazeerabad and irrigate an additional non-localised ayacut of 3,400 acres in Wadapally, Irkigudem, Kothapally, Tallaveerappa Gudem, Damaracherla, Narsapur, Rajagattu, Kallepally and Bothalapalem in Damaracherla mandal of the Miryalaguda constituency. The tanks in the command area of Wazeerabad can also be filled under this scheme.

The other LI schemes include Pogilla, Kambalapally, Nambapuram, Peddagattu, Ammabhavani and AKBR. Besides, CC lining at some reaches, which were not taken up under the modernisation of Nagarjuna Sagar left main canal up from km 0 to km 70.520 to strengthen canal banks, was approved by the State government two months ago.