In what can be considered a setback to the Andhra Pradesh government, the Union Jal Sakthi ministry on Thursday rejected the detailed project report submitted by the state irrigation department on Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project (RLIP).
The project is aimed at lifting three tmc ft of water per day from Srisailam reservoir to irrigate the parched lands of Kurnool and Kadapa districts of Rayalaseema region.
The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 4,000 crore and the contract was awarded to Megha Engineering a couple of months ago.
However, the Centre expressed unhappiness over the way the DPR was prepared. It has directed the state government authorities to send a revised DPR as per the guidelines of the Central Water Commission (CWC).
It may be mentioned that even National Green Tribunal had earlier directed the state government not to go ahead with the Rayalaseema lift project without obtaining environmental clearance well in advance. It has banned further works on the project till all clearances were obtained.
The NGT took exception to the AP government’s attempt to project Rayalaseema lift scheme as a drinking water scheme without any irrigation component. It said the state government had prepared the project report only to circumvent the process to obtain environmental clearance.
