KCR Puts Kaleshwaram Works On Fast Track

Back to Hyderabad from his two-day Karimnagar tour, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday conducted a marathon review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Saturday.

During the seven-hour meeting, KCR instructed the officials concerned to get all the works related to the Kaleshwaram project completed at the earliest.

The CM said that since all the required permissions, needed funds, land acquisition and other related issues regarding the project were cleared, and as the environmental clearance for the final stage of the project would be accorded soon, the plans of construction works should be kept ready and the project should now be completed within the stipulated time period.

KCR stressed upon expediting the Kaleshwaram works also because the Mission Bhagiratha - Telangana's drinking water project - was dependent on water from the Kaleshwaram project.

"Mission Bhagiratha works are going on at a good pace. In the next 45 days, 98% of the villages will start getting drinking water. The required water for Mission Bhagiratha needs to be provided from Kaleshwaram and other projects," KCR said.

The Chief Minister's wish list for the project included laying of two-lane roads on the barrages; laying of roads on a permanent basis for the pump houses, sub-stations and canals; construction of guesthouses at every barrage; making necessary security arrangements at the barrages by setting up CC cameras for round-the-clock surveillance; and setting up command control rooms at the project site.

The CM also wanted permanent helipads at every project site in the state.

KCR also thanked the officials who had worked hard to get the permissions for the project sanctioned quickly. He also took the occasion to shower praises on Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao.

"People in Telangana have high hopes on Harish Rao. They have faith that Rao, together with the irrigation officials, will complete the project on time and provide them water. Harish Rao has done a wonderful job in getting the inter-state agreement cleared by the Maharashtra government. From now on he should visit the project site every 10 days. The Chief Secretary S P Singh and I will visit the project once in 30 days. It is important to bring water from Medigadda to Mid-Manair, and we have a maximum of 200 days left for this. Utilize the time and complete the works at the earliest," the CM said.

Ministers T Harish Rao and Etela Rajender, the government's Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Mission Bhagiratha Vice-Chairman Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Irrigation Development Corporation Chairman Shankar Reddy, MP Balka Suman, Chief Secretary S P Singh, DGP Mahender Reddy, Special Chief Secretary (Irrigation) S K Joshi, Principal Secretaries Ramakrishna Rao and P K Jha, Transco Directors Surya Prakash, Jagat Reddy and Narsing Rao, and other senior officials attended the meeting.