The Andhra Pradesh government’s ambitious plan to link the waters of the Godavari and Krishna has become controversial.
Touted by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu as a “game changer,” the Godavari-Banakacherla project aims to provide drinking water to 80 lakh people and ensure an additional 7.5 lakh acres of irrigated land. It is estimated to cost ₹80,112 crore and is expected to be completed in three years.
The Telangana government has protested against the project. According to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, if any State wants to build a project on any river in these two States, it must inform the Godavari River Management Board and the Krishna River Management Board as well as the neighbouring State. Telangana argues that Andhra Pradesh took up the project without providing this information.
The division of water resources has been a source of friction between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ever since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Telangana, which is upstream, asserts its right to use waters of the Krishna river for projects such as the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, while Andhra Pradesh believes that these initiatives are detrimental to the flow downstream and would potentially impact projects such as Banakacherla. Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana refer to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, to make their case.
Recalling that the Reorganisation Act provides for project-wise allocation of water between the riparian States, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has also stated that his government would put up a strong case before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II for the allocation of Krishna river water to Telangana under Section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act (ISRWDA), 1956. Telangana contends that the Apex Council set up under the Reorganisation Act also supported the claim for allocation of water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, as per Section 3 of ISRWDA.
Perhaps expecting such opposition, Mr. Naidu chose his words carefully while speaking of the details of the project. He stressed that the Banakacherla project involved the “intra-State linking of rivers” and that the interlinking of rivers is the responsibility of the Union government. He argued that as an aqueduct would be used to transfer waters from the Godavari to the Krishna, there may not be demands from other co-basin States of the Krishna river to share in the supplementation.
The project will be taken up in three segments. The first segment involves diverting water from the Polavaram project to the Krishna river. In the second segment, the government proposes to construct the Bollapalli reservoir and transfer water. In the third segment, water will be diverted from Bollapalli to Banakacherla, which will be the gateway to Rayalaseema.
Mr. Naidu urged the visiting Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 18 to help Andhra Pradesh complete the project. He told the media that he had already discussed the project with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during his visit to Delhi last December. The ball is now in the Central government’s court. If the inter-State water disputes are solved, Andhra Pradesh will be able to take up the project, which is important to the State and particularly to Rayalaseema’s drought-prone areas.
The Andhra Pradesh government has said that a hybrid model would be adopted for completion of the project and would involve State and Central funding and private partnerships. It clarified that the project will not be under private control and that the government will “pay annuity” to the investors akin to toll collected by the road users. There are apprehensions that the burden of the annuity will be passed on to the farmers. The government should clear the air on this issue before going ahead with the project.
While the State government has embarked on this project, 86 other irrigation projects remain pending in Andhra Pradesh. The status on the Polavaram project, which is considered the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh, remains unclear. If work on the Banakacherla project begins, these pending projects as well as the issues relating to the Polavaram project are likely to be on the back burner. In the next three to four years, discussions will probably centre around the Banakacherla project.
subbarao.gavaravarapu@thehindu.co.in
Published – January 29, 2025 01:03 am IST
