NATIONAL RIVERS LINKING - MANY HAD DREAMS, ONLY CHANDRABABU NAIDU COULD DO IT

NATIONAL RIVERS LINKING - MANY HAD DREAMS, ONLY CHANDRABABU NAIDU COULD DO IT

Interlinking of Rivers in India:

Sir Arthur Cotton, popularly known as Cotton Dora in Godavari delta for his outstanding contribution towards Dowleswaram anicut at Rajahmundry on Godavari is the first irrigation engineer from Madras presidency who came with the idea of rivers and canals linking for cost effective transport and to address drought and water shortage particularly in southern parts of India.  Sir Cotton’s contributions include aqueduct on Krishna at Vijayawada, Dam on Kaveri near Trichy in TN. His contributions to Godavari delta and Konaseema are so good, due to which people treat him as a god and one can find many statues of Sir Arthur Cotton in many Godavari districts villages.  Though he took up few canal navigation projects successfully, the river linking did not materialize.   

After 100 plus years, in 1970 again the river linking project resurfaced By Dr. K L Rao, Ex Irrigation Minister in Nehru’s cabinet.  Dr Rao’s idea was to scale up inter basin water transfers and link Ganga, Brahmaputra , both water surplus basins to central and southern parts of the nation, who are water deficit. Mostly it remind as an idea and did not met with any considerable progress.

The idea was put in cold storage for 10 years and in 1980 during Janata party rule it resurfaced and Ministry of Water Resources came out with a report entitled "National Perspectives for Water Resources Development". This report split the water development project in two parts – the Himalayan and Peninsular components.  With change in Government in 1982, the plan was abandoned.

The New Government under Mrs. Gandhi in 1982 constituted a expert committee “National Water Development Agency (NWDA)” to study river basins, implications of river linking, environmental issues, international issues and submitted various reports till 2013, but nothing concrete had happened. Though the idea was revived in 1999 under Vajpayee rule, with shift from inter basin water transfer to intra basin development, no significant progress happened.

Only in 2014-15, the visionary CM of AP took up the linking of Godavari with Krishna on war footing basis and completed the project in record time and made first serious step towards National river linking project. He has plans to link Krishna basin with Penna, Godavari with Vamsadhara – Nagavali and working in that direction.

Sri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister Of Andhra Pradesh deserve his name to be written in golden letters for creating history by putting first step in national rivers linking and break the silence of 140 years and realized the dreams of many like  Sir Arthur Cotton, Dr. K L Rao.  

Leader with commitment: 

Many can become politicians, only few will grow as leaders. From these leaders selective few are known as leaders with future vision and Chandrababu Naidu (CBN) is certainly one among these selective few. CBN the leader with vision and commitment, once again proved that how challenges can be converted into opportunities. YSR created lot hopes about irrigation among AP farmers and Polavaram is very important project among them and branded as life line of AP. After sudden demise of YSR, most of the projects became like orphan children and state bifurcation took lead over the development. State separation was inevitable and CBN was elected as residual AP Chief Minister. The Polavaram project with partly completed canals and very little work on structure, uncertainty about time frames and funding is the reality when CBN took over as AP CM.

Instead of taking political advantage by blaming the previous Governments for non completion of the project, CBN saw an opportunity of linking Godavari with Krishna through Polavaram right canal by completing the balance canal works and by installing pumping systems at Pattiseema as temporary measure till completion of Polavaram irrigation project.

Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project:

With the completion of the pumping system in record time of less than one year and by making attempts to complete balance canal works, Pattiseema lift irrigation project successfully completed trail run in 2015 and by 2016-17 it reached to its full capacity and pumped about 80 TMC water to Krishna Delta in 16-17. This timely and visionary decision of CBN helped 13 Lakh Acre Krishna deltas which were otherwise suffering badly for water particularly during the period June to August. The impact is so good, even for tail end area farmers in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam dists, who could save crops by getting much needed critical irrigation. The project is fully operational with capacity to pump about 0.75 TMC daily. In worst scenario, it will be operational for 60 days a year and pump about 45 TMC Godavari water, otherwise discharged to sea into Krishna Delta.

There are some views expressed that Krishna Delta storage capacity is only 3 TMC and it will be the limitation for using Pattiseema lift. Krishna Delta canal system absorbs about 1.5 TMC water on daily basis and it's just 50% of Pattiseema pumping and hence it will be never a limitation.

The project is not coming in the way of Godavari River water sharing, as the surplus water only is being pumped. But in Krishna water sharing, whatever is pumped from Godavari will be deducted from Krishna Delta share and use for irrigation of Royalseema region through Pothireddypadu, Velugodu etc. In fact during this season, water is been supplied to tanks in drought affected areas of Kadapa, Anantapur dists thereby helping farmers of that region. This will be also useful to irrigate tail end areas of Prakasam and Guntur districts through Nagarjunasagar right canal.

CBN’s Vision:

By pumping Godavari water into Polavaram right canal and linking the same canal to Krishna river  

( Prakasam barrage basin), CBN proved that only a committed leader with long term vision can dream, visualize, plan and execute  such river linking projects in record time. Polavaram is declared as national project and GOI committed for its 100% funding. Despite confusion about treating Pattiseema as integral part of Polavaram, CBN understood the immediate needs of farmers and move forward with Pattiseema. Now all of us are aware of the story of Polavaram and the way project is being treated despite CBN’s best efforts. Had he not visualized the urgent needs of Krishna delta, the area would have suffered for irrigation for three to five years (hoping that Polavaram will be completed by 2020).

Similarly CBN could understand the irrigation needs of East Godavari upland areas, Vizag and northern coastal AP and initiated Puruthotamapatnam lift irrigation project linking with Polavaram left and Yeluru canals. This project is expected to complete its first phase in couple of months and will be a game changer in north coastal dists.

Starting with Vamsadhara, Nagavali Rivers in Srikakulam ending with Penna River in Nellore District, AP under the seasoned leadership of CBN is moving forward with linking of the rivers covering nine districts in coastal Andhra Pradesh with plans to see fully irrigated drought resistant Andhra Pradesh and realize the vision of “NAVYANDHRA PRADESH".  Only a leader like CBN can take such integrated decisions in the larger interest of people, despite prevailing hostile environment. My request to people of AP is to keep the political affiliations at bay and congratulate the state for presenting these special jewels to the farmers of AP.

JOIN HANDS WITH STATE IN REALISING THE DREAM PROJECT “POLAVARAM – LIFE LINE OF AP” AND MOVE FORWARD TO SEE DROUGHT FREE ANDHRA PRADESH.

B Guruva Reddy -9866889246

grbonthu@gmail.com