Transco told to speed up work for LI projects.

The State Government has asked the power utilities to speed up work related to electricity supply to the pumping stations of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project in line with the plans to start lifting of water from June next year.

Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao reviewed the progress of power-related works of the Kaleshwaram project here on Tuesday and the meeting was attended by Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Transco D. Prabhakar Rao, Engineer-in-Chief C. Muralidhar, Transco Co-Director Suryaprakash, Genco Director Venkataraham, Advisor on lift irrigation projects K. Penta Reddy and Chief Engineers of Irrigation and Transco.

Mr. Prabhakar Rao assured at the meeting that the Transco would complete construction of sub-stations and erecting the transmission lines before the deadline.

Mr. Harish Rao stated that Kaleshwaram and other lift irrigation projects would require about 12,500 MW load of power by June next and that power installations for Kaleshwaram should be ready by March next since the Irrigation Department was going ahead with package wise targets on the construction of pump houses.

Further, the Minister stated that construction of pump houses under packages 6 and 8 would be completed by December-end this year and related works such as fabrication of motors and other electro-mechanical equipment was also lined up in tune with the deadline so as to supply Kaleshwaram water for irrigation from the next kharif.

The Minister asked the Transco to shift the existing transmission lines passing through the sites of Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages and pump houses of Kaleshwaram project as also those going through the reservoir sites of Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation project. The Transco officials agreed to take up shifting of such lines immediately.

Underlining the need for coordinated work between the irrigation and electricity departments, the Minister suggested the officials set up a team with engineers from the two departments and also set up project-wise control rooms for overseeing the work by the joint team.

THE HINDU