Rs 200 cr allocation sought for Vedavathi Lift Irrigation Scheme

The CPI State secretary, K Ramakrishna, has urged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to allocate Rs.200 crore in the State budget to complete the Vedavati Lift Irrigation Scheme within three years, highlighting its importance as a lifeline for the drought-prone Kurnool Western region. He emphasised that once completed, the project will bring 80,000 acres under cultivation and provide drinking water to 10 lakh people across 253 villages and two municipalities.
In a letter written to the Chief Minister on Tuesday, Ramakrishna reminded that Chandrababu had originally designed the Vedavati Lift Irrigation Scheme in 2019. According to the plan, the project included constructing a reservoir to store 4.25 TMC of water between Halaharvi and Aluru, and another reservoir to store 4 TMC at Molagapalli. The previous government had also assigned the project work to a contracting agency after calling for tenders.
Ramakrishna noted that in the event of a shortage of water in Vedavati, the government had proposed to supplement it with water from the Handri-Neeva project, and arranged a pipeline for that. He recalled that Chandrababu Naidu had identified it as one of 54 priority projects.