Hyderabad: Telangana engineering-in-chief C. Muralidhar, who was present during the inter-state talks between Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Devendra Fadnavis, said the meeting did not discuss the impact of the proposed Itchampalli Major Irrigation Project since it also involved Chhattisgarh. “There will be a joint meeting with all three states later,” he said.

“Lendi, Penganga and Pranhita-Chevella are ongoing projects. There are some issues of rehabilitation and it was discussed in meeting. There is no issue of water dispute. The share of water has already been decided accordingly,” Maharashtra CMO principal secretary Pravinsinh Pardeshi.

The Lower Penganga Project is a joint project between Maharashtra and TS on Penganga River, a tributary of Godavari in Yeotmal district. “The dam site is about 12 km inside Maharashtra, from the Maharashtra-TS border. It is proposed to irrigate an ayacut of about 2,37,600 acres in Maharashtra and 40,000 acres in TS. The Right Bank Canal in TS will irrigate Adilabad district,” said an official.

Lendi, another joint major project between both states is located in Mukhed taluka of Nanded district on Lendi River. Mr Fadnavis assured Mr Rao that there was no issue on the Penganga and Lendi projects. “But I am concerned about Pranhita-Chevella project as 30 villages and more than 2,000 hectares of land will be submerged,” he said.

“We will try to minimise the number of villages and land submerge in the project," Mr Fadnavis told reporters after the meeting. He said that both states had decided to form a joint committee with officials of both state and they would further research on the Pranhita project. “Mr Rao has agreed with our concern,” Mr Fadnavis said.

Mr Rao, on his part, also said that his government would try to minimise the land to be submerged. “I will personally visit the dam and project site,” he said. “Maharashtra is a good neighbour and history will not be repeated, like the disputed relation between AP-Maharashtra on water sharing,” he assured.