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Hyderabad: The Central Water Commission (CWC) has convened a meeting of senior officials from Telangana and Maharashtra on September 1 in New Delhi to review technical and inter-state issues concerning the proposed Tummidihetti barrage on the Pranahita river, a long-pending project between the two states.

The meeting, to be chaired by the CWC Chairman at Sewa Bhawan, follows sustained efforts by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to get the Centre to intervene and resolve the dispute, according to a statement issued by the state government.

Height dispute core of row

Revanth Reddy had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on May 26 seeking a meeting between the two states to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution on the barrage. He also raised the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose office forwarded the letter to the Ministry of Jal Shakti. 

He followed this up with a separate letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil on August 5, seeking the Centre’s active intervention, the statement said.

Telangana is seeking approval to construct the barrage at a height of 152 metres, against the 148 metres earlier agreed to by Maharashtra. The state has told the Centre that drawing the required volume of water through gravity flow is not feasible at 148 metres, and that relying on large pumps instead would push up electricity costs substantially. Telangana has argued that the barrage should be built in a way that secures long-term benefits for the state without adding to its power supply costs.

The government has also cited studies by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) to argue that the additional submergence resulting from raising the water level would be limited and has said it has been continuously engaging with both the Centre and Maharashtra to expedite the project, which is intended to provide irrigation to backward and drought-prone areas of northern Telangana.

Dispute dates back to 2016

The Tummidihetti barrage, part of the Pranahita-Chevella irrigation project, is proposed near Tummidihetti village in Kouthala mandal of the erstwhile Adilabad district, where the Pranahita meets the Wardha and Wainganga rivers. The project originally envisaged a full reservoir level of 152 metres, but at an Inter-State Board meeting in August 2016, Maharashtra agreed only to a height of 148 metres, citing easier clearances on its side of the border. 

The dispute over the height difference has held up the project for years, with Telangana maintaining that a higher barrage would improve irrigation coverage in its northern districts while keeping submergence in Maharashtra within acceptable limits.