A BARRAGE OF WOES

THE KALESHWARAM LIFT IRRIGATION SCHEME TO TAP GODAVARI WATERS, A PET PROJECT OF FORMER TELANGANA CM K. CHANDRASHEKAR RAO, IS BESET BY CONTROVERSY AND COST OVER-RUNS

- Amarnath K. Menon

On February 13, the Telangana government headed by new chief minister A.Revanth Reddy took all its ministers and legislators on a 'study tour' of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS). Located in the state's north, on its border with Maharashtra, KLIS had been a pet project of the previous chief minister, K. Chandrashekar Rao or KCR. Launched in KCR's first term as CM, in 2014, it was meant to end the water woes of the semi-arid regions of the state. Except that it is turning out to be a Rs 1.5 lakh crore white elephant that might well fall short of delivering what KCR had promised. The February 13 expedition was for the government team to assess for itself the quality of work undertaken on the project so far.

Two days later, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) revealed that the final cost of the KLIS project could exceed Rs 1.47 lakh crore as against the Rs 81,911 crore projected to the Central Water Commission (CWC). The possibility of undue benefit of at least Rs 2,684.7 crore to the contractors' was not ruled out either. "We will expose how the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government of KCR wasted over Rs 1 lakh crore," declared Revanth Reddy.

KLIS has been plagued by a series of structural failures at its three main reservoirs-Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. After the change of regime in Telangana, there have also been incidents of files going missing or getting destroyed at a KLIS office. That, and the non-cooperation of some project engineers in submitting information, have pushed the current Congress government to act swiftly on the issue. The KLIS project had suffered two major setbacks in the past two years. First, two of its pumphouses linked to the Medigadda and Annaram barrages went under in the Godavari floods in July 2022.