Focus on completion of Vedavathi Lift Irrigation Scheme

VIJAYAWADA: Other than the Gundrevula project on the Tungabhadra River, the Vedavathi Lift Irrigation Scheme is a much-debated topic among the agriculture community in Kurnool district after the recent crest gate washout of the Tungabhadra dam.

The then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for the project in March 2019. The project taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 1,942 crore is yet to be completed.

Retired deputy executive engineer and designer of Vedavathi scheme M Subbarayudu wrote a letter to Naidu recently, urging him to take up the project on a priority basis.

Once completed, the project will become a lifeline of the western parts of Kurnool district and stabilise the Low-Level Canal (LLC) and High-Level Canal (HLC) tail-end reaches, besides creating a new ayacut of 80,000 acres, he explained.

The Vedavathi scheme of 80 metre lift on the Vedavathi River at Gulyam village was first envisaged in December 2011 to combat drought in Kurnool. It took eight long years to convince the State government to give administrative sanction for the project.