Hyderabad: Irrigation, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy ordered immediate action to restart the stalled Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel works. He called the project a “very high priority” for the Congress government and vital for reducing irrigation costs in Telangana.
At a review meeting in the Secretariat on Friday, he said the process to restart construction had already begun. A meeting with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka will soon finalise clearances from the Finance, Energy and other departments. Works will resume based on an expert committee’s recommendations after the tunnel accident that halted progress.
The Minister stressed that the remaining 9 km of the tunnel will allow water to flow from the bottom of the Srisailam reservoir through gravity. This will end the annual spend of ₹750 crore on electricity for lifting water to fluoride-hit and tribal areas. “It is unfortunate that such a crucial lifeline is stalled for just 9 kilometres of work,” he said.
The National Geophysical Research Institute will run an aerial electromagnetic survey using helicopter-mounted equipment. It will map conditions up to one kilometre underground and detect fault lines. The Geological Survey of India will conduct an aerial LIDAR survey for accurate planning. Both surveys will serve different technical goals. Tunnelling of nearly 10 km will start immediately after the assessments. The Minister said the project will stay within the Cabinet-approved cost and maintain quality and speed.
SLBC tunnel works to move with advanced surveys
Uttam Kumar Reddy also reviewed staffing in the Irrigation Department. For the first time in 33 years, the department completed promotions for all categories on a regular basis. Forty-seven Executive Engineers moved up to Superintending Engineers. One hundred twenty-seven Assistant Executive Engineers became Deputy Executive Engineers. Thirteen Superintending Engineers advanced to Chief Engineers. He said the promotions followed merit and seniority, without any favouritism. He urged all staff to work with focus to finish pending irrigation projects on priority.
On dam safety, he sent an expert team to Singur Dam to suggest urgent reinforcements. Sandbags will be placed wherever needed. He ordered close monitoring of all dams, reservoirs and barrages during the monsoon. “There should be no negligence,” he said, warning against any procedural or technical delay in preventive works.
The Sammakka Sagar Project, or Thupakulagudem Barrage, also came up for review. Officials shared an IIT-Kharagpur study on the backwater impact in Chhattisgarh during high floods caused by Polavaram in Andhra Pradesh and Sammakka Sagar in Telangana. The study found that in a 500-year return period flood of 102,000 cumecs, the presence of the barrage raises the High Flood Level to 93 metres. This submerges 10.9 sq km in five Bijapur district villages, compared to 10.5 sq km without the barrage — an increase of 40 hectares.
The Minister said Telangana will seek no-objection certificates from Chhattisgarh to finish the barrage. Construction began in 2017 but missed its 2022 deadline. The project aims to stabilise 16.40 lakh acres under the Devadula Lift Scheme and other systems, while storing 6.94 TMC of water for multipurpose use.