CM of Telangana and Maharashtra K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Devendra Fadnavis, inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at Mumbai on Tuesday on setting up an water board on Godavari ventures, finishing many years of disunity between the two States on use of water in the stream Godavari and its tributaries.
The agreement will pave the pay for the two States to work out mutually-agreeable specifications on the construction of Medigadda barrage, 20 km downstream of Kaleshwaram in Warangal District, as part of the Kaleshwaram Project, a component of the redesigned Pranahita-Chevella project. The barrage would allow irrigation of 16.4 lakh acres in Telangana and over 50,000 acres in some tribal areas of Maharashtra with the help of four small lift irrigation schemes.
A meeting between the officials of the two States would decide the height, full reservoir level (FRL), of the barrage likely to be anywhere between 100 and 103 meters. Speaking after inking the bilateral document, Mr. Fadnavis said that they had agreed for a pact with Telangana after the neighbouring State had explained and convinced it about various possibilities on taking up the barrage.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said: “We are ready to take up construction of Medigadda barrage, if given a go-ahead by Maharashtra, immediately even as talks could continue on deciding the height of the barrage at mutually agreeable level. However, my request to Maharashtra is to keep in mind that higher the storage capacity of the barrage, larger the benefits to farmers of both the States without causing much submergence”.
He invited Mr. Fadnavis, Water Resources Minister of Maharashtra G.D. Mahajan and officials of the Irrigation Department to Hyderabad for the next meeting of the inter-state board to discuss and decide upon the levels of Medigadda and Tummidihatti barrages.
