The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana aims to utilize 240 TMC of water from the Godavari River through three barrages - Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. It involves the construction of 20 lifts, 19 pump houses including the world's largest underground pumping station, 88 pumps, tunnels totaling 203 km, 1800 km of canals and 20 reservoirs. The project will irrigate over 18.5 lakh acres of land across 14 districts in Telangana at an estimated cost of Rs. 80,190 crore, making it the world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project.

1. TMC ft : One thousand million cubic feet commonly used in India in
reference to volume of water in a reservoir or river.
Cusecs : It is a measure of flow rate (cubic feet per second).
Cumecs : a cubic meter per second, as a unit of rate of flow of
water.
Spill Way : a passage for surplus water from a dam.
Catchment area : a natural drainage structure in which water is
collected or the area from which rainfall flows into a river, lake, or
reservoir.
Surge pool : A surge pool is a standpipe or storage reservoir at the
downstream end of a closed dam, barrage pipe to absorb sudden
rises of pressure, as well as to quickly provide extra water during
a brief drop in pressure.
Delivery cistern : is a waterproof holder for holding liquids, usually
water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater.
Command Area : The area which can be irrigated from a scheme
and is fit for cultivation.
Barrage : an artificial barrier across a river or estuary to prevent
flooding, aid irrigation or navigation, or to generate electricity.
Dam : A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of water or
underground streams. (Multi purpose)
Word list

2. Indian River Systems

3. GODAVARI
The total length of Godavari is 1465 kms. From it origin to Narasapuram in West
Godavari.
Godavari enters into Telangana in Nizamabad district at Kandakurthy where Manjira,
Haridra rivers join Godavari and form Triveni Sangamam.
About 12 km (7.5 mi) after entering Telangana, it merges with the back waters of the

4. Godavari and its catchment area

5. PATTERN OF DRAINAGE

6. The catchment area is in 7
states

8. Major Tributaries of Godavari

9. Lift Irrigation Projects in Telugu
States
 Building Heavy lift irrigation projects were started in Telugu states from
2000.
 Handrineeva Sujala Sravanthi – Krishna (back waters of Srisailam
Reservoir at Malyala village)
 Sri Vidhyasagar Rao Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme : on Dindi tributary of
Krishna river.
 Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy Ethipothala Scheme - Krishna (in
Mahbubnagar district in Telangana)
 Jawahar Nettempadu - Krishna (Foreshore of Priyadarshini Jurala
Project near upperu village Jogulamba Gadwal district)
 J Chokkarao Devadula Ettipothala Padhakam – Godavari ( near
Gangaram (V), Eturunagaram (M), Warangal District )
 Purushoththama Patnam Lift Irrigation Scheme – Godavari
(Purushothapatnam Village in Seethanagaram (M), East Godavari
District)
 Pattiseema – Godavari, Krishna (Inter linkage lift of Polavaram
Project with Krishna river)

10. Pattiseema Pattiseema Lift Irrigation
Project is a river inter linking
project near Polavaram which
connects Godavari River to
Krishna river.

11. Handri neeva Sujala Sravanthi
Handrineeva SS (Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi project is the
longest water canal (569 km length ) project in Rayalaseema. The
project is conceived to provide irrigation facilities and reliable
drinking water supply, by drawing flood waters from the Srisailam
reservoir. The first phase commences at Malyala, Nandikotukur,
kurnool )

12. J Chokkarao Devadula
Ettipothala
Devadula (It is the second biggest of its kind in Asia.
Devadula is the place in Warangal District, Telangana.
Juvvadi Chokkarao ( served as MP from Karimnagar)
Devadula LIS, inter river basin transfer link to feed
Godavari water to Krishna. Benefited Warangal and

13. Kalwakurthy Eththipothala
Kalvakurthy (Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy lift irrigation
project (KLIP) is on River Krishna located in Mahboobnagar
district in Telangana. It has 40 Mw of pump which is largest so
far)

14. Nettempadu (Javahar
Nettempadu)
Nettempadu : The Nettempadu Scheme provide irrigation and drinking
water facilities for drought prone areas of Mahabubnagar District, by
lifting water from Krishna River from the foreshore of Priyadarshini
Jurala Project on the right flank near Upperu (V), Dharur (M).

15. Purushoththama Patnam LIP
The Purushottapatnam Lift Irrigation project (PLIP) is designed to serve
the needs of East Godavari, Visakhapatnam and the other north Andhra
districts. This on the Left Main Canal of the Polavaram project.

16. R Vidhyasagar Rao Dindi LIS
Dindi Reservoir is a medium water reservoir across Dindi
tributary of River Krishna located near Dindi, Mahabubnagar
town in Telangana. It is part of Srisailam Left Bank Canal.
Objective is to supply drinking water to the floride affect villages

17. Jalayagnam
 It is a water management program taken up in 2004 by the
then Chief Minister of former Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Y. S.
Rajasekhara Reddy as an election promise to the farmers of
the state to bring 8.2 million acres under irrigation in five
years.
 He had taken a decision to build two major irrigation projects
under Jalayagnam.
1) Pranahitha – Chevella (Dr. B.R. Ambedkar project)
2) Polavaram project .
 Y.S.R has taken required approvals from central government
like Site clearance, environmental clearance, wildlife
sanctuary clearance, forest clearance, technical advisory
committee clearance and Central Water Commission. Finally,
when he decided to execute projects in a phased manner, he
died in an accident.
 Subsequently there were other issues like political instability,
separate Telangana movement came to high intensity.
Subsequent Chief Ministers failed to give priority for
Jalayagnam.

18. Pranahitha-Chevella (BRALIS)
 This project was planned to be built with height of 152 Meters at Tummidihatti village
where Wardha and Wain Ganga rivers join and form Pranahitha river.
 With an objective of 160 TMC water to irrigate 16.74 lakh acres of land, 30 TMC of
water to Hyderabad and secunderabad and 16 TMC for industrial use.
 They planned to construct an inter river basin transfer link by feeding Godavari river
water to Krishna river basin.
 Works of this project is almost restricted to link upto Medak instead of chevella. A link
canal and tunnel works are alomost complete at shankar palli of Medak district.
Drawback of the Tummidihatti Project
 In 2005, the project cost was pegged at Rs. 17,875 crore with the objective of
creating irrigation potential to 12 lakh acres.
 Its cost went up to Rs.38,500 crore in the DPR prepared in 2008 with the extension
of the project up to Chevella (RR) to irrigate 16.4 lakh acres by lifting 165 tmc ft
water. The cost was revised again in 2010 to Rs. 40,300 crore. However, only
works pertaining to canal network were taken up as Maharashtra strongly opposed
the height of Tummidihatti barrage at 152 m as it would submerge a large area in its
territory, including a wild life sanctuary.
 It is re-engineered as Kaleshwaram Project by shifting the venue of project from
Tummidihatti to Kaleshwaram . Constructing three barrages across Godavari River
namely Medigadda ( 20 kms away from Kaleshwaram) , Annaram Barrage and
Sundilla Barrage.
 CWC also was in doubt that the Wain Ganga and Wardha cant bring 165 TMC of
flood water which is very low to the capacity of the project. If so the entire money
spend on the project will be a dead investment .
 Assuming that if 1000 crore rupees are allocated every year , it takes 40 years to

19. R. Vidhya Sagar Rao
Ramaraju Vidyasagar Rao was a government administrator and a Telangana activist.
• He was the Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources.
• Worked in the Central Water Commission(CWC).
• Worked as Consultant to NABARD.
• Served as Resource Person, National Commission for integrated Water Resources
Development Plan.
• Served as member of Working Group of Major, Medium Irrigation & Command
Area Development Project for XII Five Year Plan. (2012–2017)
• He also worked as a consultant to the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) at Nairobi (Kenya) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
• He wrote book namely NEELLU NIJALU which was a sensational at that time.
• After the formation of Telangana State, he was appointed as the Advisor on
Irrigation to the Government of Telangana. He died on 29 April 2017
(aged 77)

20.  WAPCOS known as Water and Power Consultancy
Services (India) Limited is a consultancy organisation and
public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Water
Resources.
 WAPCOS is playing a major role in River Development and
Ganga Rejuvenation.
 LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and
Ranging, is a remote sensing method that
uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to
measure ranges (including height and variable
distances) to the Earth.
 These light pulses combined with other data
recorded by the airborne system generate
precise, three-dimensional information about
the shape of the Earth and its surface
characteristics.
Kaleshwaram LIS design

21.  LIDAR data is often collected with the help of
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration) survey aircraft.
 LIDAR data supports activities such as
inundation and, hydrodynamic modeling,
shoreline mapping, Hydrographic surveying (
water depth).

22. LIDAR IMAGE

25. KLIS ( Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation
Scheme)
 The project aims to utilize a total of
240 TMC.
Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation constitute
three projects in it. They are :
 Medigadda Barrage
 Annaram Barrage
 Sundilla Barrage
Medigadda 195 TMC
Sripada Yellampalli 20 TMC
Ground Water 25 TMC

26. ACTUAL COST OF THE PROJECT

27. Salient features of KLIS
 It is world's largest multi-stage lift irrigation project.
 It is divided into 7 links and 28 packages
 There will be 20 Lifts, 19 pump houses, 88 pumps in
the project.
 Among 19 Pump houses, (mega pump 139 Mw is
used in Ramadugu pump house.)
 The project comprises world's largest underground
pumping station and an 81 km long tunnel between
Yellampalli barrage and upcoming Mallanna Sagar
reservoirs.
 It has canal network of about 1800 kms.
 Tunnels to a length of 203 kilometers.
 20 reservoirs

28.  The project consumes 13,558 mega units and it
needs 4627.24 MW of power.
 It has 440 Kv underground substation spread
across 2 acres.
 It is covering 500 km of 14 districts. (Karimnagar,
Rajanna Siricilla, Siddipet, Medak, Yadadri,
Nalgonda, Sangareddy, Nizamabad, Jagityala,
Kamareddy, Nirmal, Medchal Malkajgiri and
Peddapalli districts. )
 Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme aims to
irrigate the 18.50,000 lakh acres of new land and
stabiliz 11,18,000 acres (ha=2.47105 acres) of
existing irrigated land.

30. PACKAGES

31. MEDIGADDA
Bed level
(meters)
Pond level
(meters)
Gross storage
(in TMC)
Number
of Gates
89 100 16.17 85
Medigadda Barrage is the starting point of the proposed
Kaleshwaram Project
Location: Medigadda (village), Mahadevpur, Jayashankar
Bhupalpalli

32. BED LEVEL POND LEVEL GROSS STORAGE
(TMC)
NUMBER OF
GATES
107 120 11.9 66
Annaram Barrage is an under construction irrigation project on
Godavari River located at Annaram Village, Mahadevpur
Mandal, Jayashankar Bhupalpally district in Telangana State,

33. SUNDILLA BARRAGE
Sundilla Barrage is an under construction irrigation project located at
Sundilla Village, Kamanpur Mandal, Peddapalli district in Telangana
State
BED LEVEL POND LEVEL GROSS STORAGE
(TMC)
NUMBER OF
GATES
118 130 5.11 74

34. Links and packages of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation scheme

43.  Rs 80,190 crore, world’s biggest.
 The Kaleshwaram irrigation project will create a world
record when 139 MW mammoth pumps will start lifting 2
TMC ft. of water daily.
 The distribution of water of this project will begin from
Yellampalli through gravity canals and pipelines.
 The water required for this will come from Medigadda
Barrage through a 14.09 kilometer underground tunnel,
which is longest irrigation tunnel in the world.
 The cavern (under ground storage) and surge pool, from
where the pump would operate, also holds the world
record with a capacity of holding 2 crore litres of water.
 Claimed to be the costliest irrigation project to be taken up
by any State till date with an estimated cost of Rs. 80,190
crore.
 Inaugarated by KCR, Devendra Fadnavis, YS Jagan on
21st June 2019 at 11.30 PM.
Fascinating facts

44. Critisism
It will be a burden to government
 Trial run expenditure is 8 crores.
 Total power cost per year goes up to 10,000 crores in future it may
go upto 15000 crores.
 Including mission Bhagiratha the cost goes up to 50000 crores.
 Power production (future needs added with domestic and industrial
demand)
 Cost per acre goes very high.
 User charges on people will be levied . (report submitted by
Telangana government to 15th Financial Commission )
 Maintenance charges becomes burden.
 Balancing act should be done. ( there will be waste if any thing
provided freely)
 Siltation is going to be the major problem
 Storage capacity of reservoirs may decrease in future.
 Cropping pattern needed to be changed. Low water consuming
crops should be encouraged.
 Rhythu Bandhu to be linked to the cropping pattern.

45. Ramadugu pumping station (largest capacity of 139 Mw)

61. From:
Department of Social Studies
SPR SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE
100 Ft. ROAD, HANAMKONDA
Mr. Raju A. 9441412900