Plan panel nod for Godavari canal project

The Planning Commission has approved the flood flow canal project (major) from the Srirama Sagar project (high-level canal project) in Andhra Pradesh's Godavari Basin at an estimated cost of Rs 1331.30 crore at the 1992-93 price level.

The project is aimed at diverting the surplus water available at the Srirama Sagar reservoir to irrigate a 1.02lakh-hectare area (ha) of draught-prone districts of Karimnagar, Warangal and Nalgonda annually.

The investment required per hectare area of irrigation is Rs 1.3 lakh, with the intensity of irrigation (effective gross availability of water per unit area of cultivable land) being 77 per cent. The gross command area (GCA) for the project is 1.69 lakh ha with a culturable command area (CCA) of 1.32 lakh ha.

The approval was subject to the conditions laid down by the Planning Commission, which included the completion of the project by financial year 2011-12 and closing of the plan accounts in the same period. The project may be executed according to the outlays approved in the state annual plans.

The forest department, Andhra Pradesh government and the ministry of tribal affairs had earlier approved the flood flow canal project.

The Planning Commission also wants the project authority to meet environmental safeguards and encourage the beneficiary farmers to take over the project for maintenance and operations.

The apex planning body wants post project condition ground level monitoring to tackle the problem of water logging.