HYDERABAD, DECEMBER 29, 2025: Telangana Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday strongly reaffirmed the Congress government’s commitment to completing the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) with its original water allocation of 90 TMC, dismissing allegations of any deviation from the project’s planned design.
Speaking in an informal interaction with media persons, Minister Reddy emphasized that the government is strictly adhering to the Government Order (GO) issued by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) administration on August 18, 2022, which proposed 90 TMC— comprising 45 TMC from savings in minor irrigation schemes and another 45 TMC from Telangana’s share due to Andhra Pradesh’s diversion of Godavari water.
“The BRS initiated the Palamuru-Rangareddy project and sought 90 TMC in their own submissions to the Centre. We are following that same GO without any changes,” Reddy stated, accusing the opposition BRS of spreading misinformation and “bent on spreading untruths” about the project’s status.He pointed out that the previous BRS government had halted works on key links such as Narlapur to Edula and not commenced on distributary channels works/ ayacut canals, despite the project’s potential to irrigate over 12.3 lakh acres in drought-prone districts, including Mahabubnagar (now Nagarkurnool and others), Rangareddy, Vikarabad, Narayanpet, and parts of Nalgonda and Khammam.
Mr .Reddy highlighted neglect of other pending projects under the BRS regime, including the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC), which could have been completed with an additional Rs 2,000 crore, and the Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme, requiring just Rs 900 crore more. The earlier BRS Government also neglected Koilsagar, Nettempadu, Bheema and Dindi Lift Irrigation Schemes. He also criticized the BRS for prioritising the Kaleshwaram project (expending over Rs 1 lakh crore) while allocating only Rs 27,000 crore to PRLIS over 10 years, resulting in limited progress.
According to Reddy, the BRS government started the project with an initial estimate of Rs 35,000 crore, but they themselves escalated costs to Rs.55,000 crore by the time the Detailed Project Report (DPR) was submitted to the Central Water Commission (CWC) after a seven-year delay.
This Rs.55,000 crore cost estimate submitted in DPR to CWC also did not include the full cost of land acquisition of 30,000 acres required for ayacut canals, did not include full cost of works of ayacut canals and did not include full cost of R&R works. At present cost, full cost of PRLI Scheme is likely to exceed Rs.70,000 crores.
Despite spending Rs 27,000 crore, no water was supplied to a single acre. In contrast, the Congress government has spent Rs 7,000 crore in the last two years, installing 11 pumps (compared to just one under BRS) and accelerating works by doing works of 67-lakhs cubic meters of earth work, 7-lakhs cubic meters of concrete work and laying 9km length of pressure mains towards progress of the Palamuru Rangareddy project. He said that the partisan attitude of BRS government is very glaring that while the earlier started Palamuru Rangareddy project did not get CWC or EC or Hydrology clearances, BRS worked towards clearances for later started Kaleswaram project. Reddy further alleged discrimination against the Palamuru region by the previous regime, noting that there was a plan to reduce the project’s capacity from 2 TMC to 1 TMC daily, while in case of Kaleshwaram, it was increased from 2 TMC to 3 TMC. He claimed instructions were given to the PLRI Engineers to slow down the works. The Engineer-in-Chief .Muralidhar Rao gave verbal instructions to Vijaya Bhasker Reddy, SE, PRLI Project and other Engineers to slow down PRLI works in 2021 citing funds crunch.
The earlier BRS government left office without achieving CWC or Hydrology or Environment or any of the important clearances for Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project. Reddy expressed his unhappiness that while BRS government spent Rs.1.83 lakh crores in their 10-years of governance, they did not find funds to complete PRLI Project or Kalwalurthy or Nettempadu or Bhima or Koilsagar or SLBC tunnel or Dindi project or Udaya Samudram project in combined Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts.
In a surprise development, public hearing of PRLI scheme scheduled in 2019 was willfully by then BRS government for 2-years which further delayed the PRLI project approvals and clearances.
The Minister also referenced the BRS government’s agreement in the Apex Council to limit Krishna water utilization to 299 TMC until the tribunal verdict, and their acceptance of only 7 TMC in Supreme Court proceedings (in Palamuru Rangareddy Project) on certain aspects.”The BRS took 10 years and failed to complete the project. We will finish it and deliver water to Palamuru,” Reddy asserted, warning against attempts to mislead the public. (EOM)
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