Congress MP and former TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao respond to the Centre’s stand that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project was not eligible to get National Project status as there was no investment clearance for it from the Centre.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, he said Chief Minister cannot remain silent. KCR was always hesitant to answer real questions on the exact capital cost, operational cost, cost-benefit ratio, viability and justification of taking high-cost loans, he said.
“By redesigning the original Pranahita-Chevella Project to Kaleshwaram cost was more than doubled to over ₹1 lakh crore. It was built not to bring water to farmers but to fill the pockets of the KCR family,” he alleged.
Mr. Reddy demanded that both the TRS and the BJP governments must clarify why a project built for ₹1.20 lakh crore is not eligible for National Project status and if the project was not economically viable why the Centre allowed the project’s construction. All those involved in its designing, construction and execution should be severely punished.
Expert opinion
The Congress MP said experts opined that Kaleshwaram would ruin Telangana's economy due to its non-viability. As per the original Detailed Project Report (DPR), the project cost was estimated to be around ₹80,000 crore for Phase-I while the annual operational and maintenance (O&M) cost was expected to be ₹13,923 crore. It was claimed in the DPR that the project would provide irrigation to 24 lakh acres.
The project has also displaced over 30,000 people in 19 villages while affecting nearly 40,015 hectares of land. Therefore, to get an estimated profit of ₹15,000 per acre, the State government is now forced to spend over ₹53,000 per acre every year on O&M costs.
Poor quality
On the submergence of two pump houses of the project due to floods, he said it exposed the poor quality of work. “To cover up this failure, KCR came up with a ridiculous and immature explanation of a foreign conspiracy behind cloudburst,” he said.
Accusing the BJP leaders of being deliberately blind to corruption in the Kaleshwaram project, he asked why is the BJP not ordering an inquiry despite the evidence with them. “Is it not the duty of the Centre to stop a State from constructing an unviable project to prevent loot and wastage of public money?”
