Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme


Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy lift irrigation project is a lift irrigation project on River Krishna located in Mahbubnagar district in Telangana, India. The lift canal starts from the back waters of Srisailam Dam near Kollapur. The gravity driven, 100 kilometer canal provides cultivation for nearly 4,00,000 acres in 300 villages located in constituencies of Kollapur, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Kalwakurthy, Jadcherla and Achampet.

History

The Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme foundation stone was laid way back in 1984. It 2014 the work started with ang of ₹2100 crores and completed in October 2017 and water was released by irrigation Minister, Harish Rao. It took a little over three decades to be completed.

The ayacut

The original design for the project was 25 TMC water capacity, but later it was increased to 40 TMC to reach the prescribed target. This project provides water to the most drought prone areas in Mahbubnagar. The water is sourced from Krishna river, by lifting water 300 meters above river level and channeling into the reservoir.
Achampet Branch Canal will be expanded by a length of 14 km, creating an additional ayacut of 15,000 acres in Achampet mandal.

Reservoirs

Around 51 balancing reservoirs with 20 TMC water capacity are proposed under MGKLIS for assured water supply to the ayacut. They are scheduled to be completed by June 2019.
The Buddaram Peddavagu Lake is proposed to be converted into a reservoir in 2018. It was conceptualised and conceived way back in 2008, due to delays it is completing in June 2019. With this reservoir, the entire parched lands under Wanaparthy district will get water for irrigation. This would also ensure continuous flow of water

Water Lifting

This project has three lifts, first lift in Eluru second in Jonnalaboguda village and third lift in Gudipally village. There are small reservoirs yet to be constructed to store the water which is lifted from the backwaters of the Srisailam. This project serves water through canals which will fill the lakes of all the villages and towns present in the five constituencies of Mahabubnagar district.

Pumps

partnered for industrial-strength water pumping technology with Andritz AG, to deploy five of its massive and high-capacity 30-megawatt, 11-kilovolt motors, each capable of pumping 23,000 litres per second. ABB also supplied substation equipment, transformers, and a digitally-enabled supervisory control and data acquisition monitoring system that ensures a steady and reliable drawing of power from the grid and smooth pumping of water into the reservoir.