Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai on October 26 to seek agreement on raising the proposed Tummidihatti barrage to 152 metres, a decision the state says is central to reviving the Pranahita-Chevella irrigation project.
Reddy, accompanied by Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and senior officials, travelled to Mumbai on October 25 for the meeting. The immediate dispute concerns the height of the barrage across the Pranahita river at Tummidihatti in Telangana’s Asifabad district, where the Wainganga and Wardha rivers meet.
The two states had agreed during the previous BRS government to a barrage height of 148 metres. Telangana has now revived its earlier proposal for a 152-metre structure, arguing that the additional height would allow around 80 tmc ft of Godavari water to be drawn and channelled by gravity towards the Sundilla barrage. From Sundilla, the water would be moved to the Sripada Yellampalli reservoir using an existing pump house.
According to the report, Telangana has said the higher barrage would support irrigation across 5.34 lakh acres, mainly in the erstwhile Adilabad district region. The state has also linked the proposal to a reduction in pumping costs compared with the energy-intensive Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, or KLIS. The Congress government decided to revive the project after alleging that the KLIS had failed to deliver its intended outcomes.
The proposed Tummidihatti barrage is planned to be 6.517 kilometres long. At a height of 148 metres, Telangana officials maintain that water cannot be transferred to Sundilla by gravity, making the 152-metre design central to the state’s current plan. Maharashtra has previously opposed the higher level because of concerns about land submergence in villages along the border.
The project was originally conceived during the tenure of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy as the starting point of the Pranahita-Chevella lift irrigation scheme. Launched in 2008–09 under the Jalayagnam programme, the original plan sought to divert around 160 tmc ft from the Pranahita river system and irrigate more than 16 lakh acres across drought-prone parts of Telangana.
The BRS government later shifted the main project focus downstream to Medigadda, reworking the scheme into KLIS and reducing the proposed Tummidihatti barrage height to 148 metres in 2016. Before that restructuring, the government had spent about Rs 11,000 crore on infrastructure, including canal excavation and structural works. Field surveys found that 71 kilometres of the downstream canal network had been substantially executed, with 45 kilometres fully dug and two major aqueducts around 70 per cent complete.
Telangana has pursued the revival through a series of consultations over the past year. The state held meetings with Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil, requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, and participated in a Central Water Commission meeting involving Telangana and Maharashtra on September 1. Telangana shared backwater studies on September 3 examining the impact of both the 148-metre and 152-metre options. The chief minister and his delegation met Patil again on September 29.
The October 26 meeting is expected to focus on securing Maharashtra’s consent for the higher barrage level and resolving the associated submergence and clearance issues. Telangana has also been in discussions with the Union Jal Shakti Ministry as it seeks to move the project forward.
