Pulichintala work to begin in a week

Rs 550-crore project gets green clearance

The Andhra Pradesh government will commence work on the Rs 550-crore Pulichintala project, one of the 26 irrigation projects and the most contentious one, in Nalgonda district within a week, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy announced here on Thursday.

Announcing that the state irrigation department received the much-awaited environmental clearance for the project from the Government of India on Wednesday, the chief minister told mediapersons that it was a landmark day in the implementation of his government's irrigation plans.

Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had directed the government to stop the construction work on the Pulichintala project citing absence of environmental clearance.

"It meant so much hardwork on part of our officials who had to complete the process to seek the clearance. I am happy, and with the completion of all the proposed projects the entire state will be as joyous as I am today," he said.

Pulichintala is being constructed to utilise the water in the intermittent catchment below the Nagarjuna Sagar. The reservoir, with a storage capacity of 37.5 tmc, is expected to stabilise 11 lakh acres of ayacut in Krishna delta in Guntur, Krishna and Prakasam districts.

The chief minister said that the project will be completed in 24 months from now. Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Congress ally in the government, and Maoists had opposed the state governments move to take up the Pulichintala project last year claiming that the project was against the interests of the people of Telangana.