KCR sanctions 105 crore for water grid project

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao on Tuesday released Rs 105 crore for the survey of proposed Water Grid project and directed the officials to begin all the works of the project parallel by completing the survey work at the earliest.

The chief minister said that the programme was intended to provide drinking water through the taps to all the homes and the government was giving top priority to it.

He said that water should be drawn from Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Kinnerasani, Vira, Ramappa, LMD, Kadem, Yellampalli, Komaram Bheem, SRSP, Gadenna, Nizam Sagar and Majira projects.

He wanted that the water should be provided to 25,000 habitats in the State. He directed the officials to call for the tenders for the pipes by making estimations on the length of them and the types since they were needed for 1.32 lakhs kms long. He said that officials must see that the pipes were manufactured in Telangana to bring down the cost of transport and to develop the State industrially.

He assured that all the help would be provided by the government to the pipes factory and wanted that motors should be fitted simultaneously while the pipes were transported to the needed areas.

He also directed the officials to send proposals of establishment of substations to the energy department since the grid needs power. He suggested that the substations should be established at intake and treatment plant areas. KCR wanted the officials to work in coordination with irrigation department since it was decided to provide 10 percent of the water of the irrigation projects to drinking needs.

He revealed that summer storage tanks works would be entrusted to irrigation department and said that there should be no compromise on quality since the Water Grid was being taken up with an expenditure of crores so that it remains in the history forever.

He wanted that a special cell should be set up under a chief engineer and made it clear that quality tests should be done right from the stage of purchasing motors, pipes and other equipment. He wanted that officials should contact the companies that assure quality.

KCR said that the responsibility of construction of grid and its maintenance should be taken up by rural water supply department and suggested that existing pipelines and tanks should be integrated with the grid.

He wanted that the water should be stored from various places being drawn from the areas wherever it was available and added that it would ensure availability of water even if projects go dry.

The Chief Minister wanted the usage of Krishna and Godavari water since the state forms half part of the basins of both of them. He said that tanks should be filled with the water from flood canals, not to take lift schemes and use gravity options.