The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababau Naidu today said interlinking of the Krishna and Godavari rivers would be able to address the drought problems in Rayalaseema region of the State.

He said Andhra Pradesh is best suited to embark upon intra-state river linking to provide farmers with assured flow of water, keeping in mind annual variability of flood water flow.

During the “Jal Manthan “ Conference on inter-linking of rivers held at Vignan Bhawan, New Delhi today, he highlighted some of the concerns of the State and how these could be addressed by harnessing the potential of rivers by tapping the waters which flows down into the sea.

Mentioning about rivers in Andhra Pradesh, he mentioned that at 75 per cent dependability in all four perennial rivers of Godavari, Krishna, Penna and Vamsadhara and about 1,460 TMC of water is available which cater water to over 80 lakh farmers all over the State.

He said out of 199 lakh of cultivable area only 101 lakh acres irrigate area, still a balance of 97.81 lakh acres area is to be irrigated. Andhra Pradesh Government proposes to utilise 150-200 TMC of water which can bridge 15 lakh acres through inter-linking. The Handri-Neeva Srujala Sravanti and Veligonda projects can be implemented within 3 Years.

The Centre had announced Polavaram as a national project where more than 50 per cent of the project works, particularly, canals are completed. The State intends to complete this project within 4 years.

If the right canal of this project is linked with the river Krishna and about 70 TMC of water could be drawn to from Godavari. It is proposed to complete this work by June 2015, he said.

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