On September 16, thousands gathered at Ferry, a village on the banks of the Krishna river in Ibrahimpatnam mandal, near Vijayawada. About 125 km away, in Tadipudi, West Godavari district, heavy-duty pumps sprang to life. Water from the Godavari gushed against gravity into the Polavaram right main canal and entered the Krishna about 18km from Vijayawada. The Krishna and Godavari rivers were finally interlinked through the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project (PLIP), and a pot of Godavari water was symbolically poured into the Krishna to mark the successful culmination of a project that was mooted decades ago.
Since September 1, about 450 cusecs of water has been pumped from the Tadipudi lift irrigation scheme in West Godavari district into the Polavaram right main canal.
By September 15, after travelling nearly 100km, the water arrived close to the Prakasam barrage, near Vijayawada.
As a lower riparian and agrarian state, Andhra Pradesh is fully dependent on flows from dams in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka, besides its own catchment areas. The Krishna-Godavari link was conceived to bring succour to the drought-prone Rayalaseema districts, while bolstering water supply to the Krishna delta region and Prakasam district.
Pattiseema village in West Godavari was originally meant to be the site for linking the country’s second-longest river (Godavari) and its fourth-longest (Krishna). Heavy monsoon showers, however, delayed work and the government was forced to shift the venue to Tadipudi. It now appears that the government had been unduly hasty in pushing for the Pattiseema link.
For Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who pushed the PLIP at a frenetic pace, it was a day of mixed feelings. The two rivers were now linked, but the much bigger Polavaram project is still a few years from completion. Conceived decades ago, the multipurpose Polavaram project proposes to transfer surplus water from the Godavari to the Krishna at Polavaram, generating 960 MW of hydel power and irrigating 11 lakh hectares of the delta.
In the meantime, Pattiseema, a small islet in the middle of the Godavari, is a scene of hectic activity. A few of the 24 pumps required for the PLIP, undertaken by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), have been installed. Water was released on a trial basis to the Krishna basin through the Polavaram right canal. However, following a breach in the canal a couple of days later at the Thammileru aqueduct, water pumping had to be stopped, giving opposition parties a stick to beat the government with.
Drought-proof
For Naidu, the Krishna-Godavari link constitutes a major step in drought-proofing the state.
Annually an estimated 3,000 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of Godavari water empties wastefully into the sea. According to the Bachawat Tribunal judgement and an inter-state agreement between Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and AP, 80 TMC of Godavari’s waters can be directed to the Krishna.
The foundation for the PLIP was laid on March 29, its phase one was inaugurated on August 15, and the waters were released on September 16, making this river-linking not just peninsular India’s first but also one that has been achieved in record time.
The ₹1,300-crore PLIP will deploy 24 pumps to lift water from the Godavari and divert it into the Krishna at the Prakasam barrage. It is expected to be fully operational by the year-end, in time for the next flood season, bringing 80 TMC of water to the Krishna river.
This will directly benefit the delta region of East and West Godavari, and Krishna districts. “It will be a boon to farmers. The surplus water will be used to cultivate eight lakh acres, which are currently dependent on Krishna water and the monsoons,” says Adityanath Das, principal secretary, Irrigation.
“And the water which flows into the Krishna barrage from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams upstream will now be diverted to meet the irrigation and drinking water requirements of Rayalaseema,” he adds.
During a flood, the 24 motors can discharge 8,000 cusecs of water for 120 days.
According to Ramana Rao, associate vice-president of MEIL, which is overseeing the Pattiseema project, “As of October 6, four pumps and four motors are at an advanced stage of installation. One pump is operational and the rest will be installed by early 2016. Similar pumps have been installed in projects like the Handri Neeva Srujala Sravanthi,” he adds.
Make-in-India project
The decades-old idea of interlinking rivers was given serious consideration periodically, especially in the early 90s, and again by the NDA government in the early noughties. Previously, there were proposals to link the Ganga and Cauvery in 1972, when KL Rao was union water minister, and in 1977, when Captain Dinshaw Dastur proposed the idea of a ‘garland canal’ around Himalayan, central and peninsular India.
In February 2012, following Supreme Court approval, the National Water Development Agency was entrusted with the task of monitoring the project. The ambitious project aims to harness the potential of Himalayan and peninsular rivers and divert them to the western and southern regions. The Himalayan network will have 14 links, while the peninsular network will have 16 river-links.
After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the Krishna’s waters were divided between the two states — 512 TMC for AP and 299 TMC for Telangana. The 80 TMC of Godavari floodwaters that will irrigate the parched Rayalaseema will, in turn, generate about ₹2,000 crore in farm incomes annually, says Naidu.
Divided opinion
Opposition parties YSR Congress, Congress and Left groups see the PLIP as an interim and unnecessary investment, to make up for the delays in the Polavaram project. They allege that the PLIP was conceived as Polavaram continues to be dogged by controversy.
Additionally, the YSR Congress has levelled charges of corruption in the PLIP. Party leader Jyothula Nehru, from East Godavari, says that while no one is opposed to linking the two rivers, the Pattiseema is not only wasteful but also dangerous. “There are apprehensions over it in the Godavari districts, but the government is going ahead in a tearing hurry, without addressing the issues,” he says.
V Arun Kumar, a former MP from Rajahmundry, terms it a “bogus project” designed to serve only the interests of contractors and ruling party leaders. He alleges that costs have been grossly inflated for kickbacks. So, while everyone is in favour of early completion of the Polavaram project, the Pattiseema project is causing deep divisions among the people. Only the Telugu Desam Party and the BJP have backed the PLIP.
Troubled waters
After the Polavaram project acquired a ‘national project’ status, the costs have escalated from ₹16,000 crore in 2011-12 to an estimated ₹25,000 crore today. While the left and right canal works are at an advanced stage of completion, the head works need attention.
When implemented, the Polavaram project will submerge 288 villages, affecting nearly 50,000 people. Despite Naidu’s assurances that the project will see completion by 2018-19, the government has its task cut out — tackling displacements, addressing neighbouring states’ concerns and raising funds.
From the fields
Some of the local farmers near the Pattiseema project site are aggrieved that they have not received adequate compensation for the lands they have lost to the project. The government acquired about 160 acres for laying pipelines, at ₹19.5 lakh per acre, but the farmers contend that some of the lands could fetch ₹20-25 lakh per acre.
“Godavari delta farmers are worried as it is one thing to build a large dam like Polavaram, create storage and divert water to Krishna, but it is an entirely different thing to lift water from a flowing river,” says Srinivas, a local farmer.
Meesala Appanna, another farmer, minces no words: “It (PLIP) is of no use to us. If the government diverts some of the water to fill local tanks, we will benefit. Otherwise, we have nothing to gain.”
The real beneficiaries would be farmers in the Krishna delta, and later those in Rayalaseema when water from Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar gets diverted. The water supply to the Krishna region would be met by Godavari and to Rayalaseema from Krishna, possibly by the next monsoon.