Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday expressed his displeasure over the delay in the completion of the Medigadda barrage which is part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project. Only 13 gates have been fixed so far out of the total 85 gates of the barrage.

Mr Rao visited the Medigadda barrage and Kannepalli pump house on Tuesday and studied the maps. He told the project officials and contractors to speed up the work and complete it before the summer. He said he would personally monitor the work once in two days.





Mr Rao flew to Kaleshwaram by helicopter from Begumpet airport and was accompanied by chief secretary S.K. Joshi and a few senior officials.

Landing at the helipad near the Medigadda barrage after an aerial tour of the project, he was taken to the gallery where photos and maps depicting the progress of the project were on display.

The engineers explained to Mr Rao how the work was being carried out and he clarified the CM's doubts regarding the project. He directed the officials to take up the land acquisition in the Telangana-Maharashtra border.He said that since the Medigadda barrage is the most important segment of the Kaleshwaram project, it must be completed as fast as possible. The engineers told the Chief Minister that the construction of the ‘Bahubali Well’, Asia’s biggest surge pool, has been completed. The well was designed to pump Godavari water from Mid Manair to Mallannasagar.

Later in the day, the Chief Minister inspected the pump house being constructed at Kannepalli in Mahadevpur mandal. Her also he asked the officials to complete the work by March so that the flood waters of the river Godavari can be utilised from this year onwards for irrigation after the monsoon.

Congress MLAs D. Sridhar Babu of Manthani and Gandra Venkataramana Reddy of Bhupalapalli and officials concerned welcomed the Chief Minister at the Medigadda project.

The two Congress MLAs submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, appealing to him not to delay the compensation to the farmers whose lands were acquired for the project and do justice to the families displaced.

Mr Rao told them not to worry about the project work in their respective Assembly constituencies and that everybody would jointly work for the development of the state with a positive attitude.

The Congress MLAs said their meeting with the Chief Minister was cordial. They also said that they would cooperate with the works on the Kaleshwaram project. They, however, said that they would stick to their demand of redesigning the Kaleshwaram project.

Meanwhile, a team of retired engineers led by M. Shyam Prasad Reddy visited the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Project on Tuesday.

Mr Reddy said that 200 metres of the main tunnel was yet to be completed and 40 acres of land was to be acquired to complete the construction of the tunnel.

He said that according to the instructions of the Chief Minister, the team has visited the Medigadda, Sundilla, and Annaram barrages and the Palamuru-Rangareddy project. He said they would visit the Dindi irrigation project on Wednesday and submit a report to the CM on Thursday.