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Complete Srisailam Left Bank Canal project before Dec 9, 2027: Revanth Reddy
The chief minister said his government is prepared to extend funds through a green channel.
Hyderabad Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday directed the officials of the state irrigation department and contractors to ensure that the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) project is completed before December 9, 2027 at any cost.
“The state government is keen on dedicating the project to the people on December 9, 2027 (coinciding with the birthday of Sonia Gandhi). The state cannot afford any laxity. Works must proceed without interruption until the project is finished,” the chief minister said, while chairing a high-level review meeting on SLBC works.
The ₹4,600 crore tunnel project aims to transfer Krishna river water from the Srisailam reservoir to provide irrigation to four lakh acres in the erstwhile combined Nalgonda district besides providing drinking water to 516 villages en route.
Out of the total length of 44 km of the main tunnel, a 20.5 km stretch was completed from Devarakonda end and another 14 km from the inlet end at Domalapenta. Two tunnel boring machines were deployed from either side to expedite the work.
With only a 9.6 km stretch of tunnel being left to be drilled from the inlet side deep in the Nallamala forest range, the tunnel collapsed on February 22 this year, within four days of the commencement of work, trapping eight employees, including two project engineers.
After two months of laborious efforts, rescue teams could recover only two bodies – one that of Gurpreet Singh, the operator of Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) from Punjab on March 9 and that of project engineer Manoj Kumar from Lucknow on March 25. The rescue operations were abandoned in April, after the engineers found it dangerous to carry out digging as it would cause further disaster.
The chief minister said his government is prepared to extend funds through a green channel. “All issues must be resolved in a single sitting without dragging matters further,” he instructed.
Revanth Reddy asked officials to give special attention to forest clearances and directed the contracting agency, JP Associates, to mobilize all necessary machinery for the tunnelling works. Expertise from Singareni Collieries engineers should be used for tunnel excavation to ensure quality and speed.
The chief minister also stressed the need to provide uninterrupted electricity to facilitate round-the-clock construction activity.
Meanwhile, former director general of Border Roads Organisation Lt Gen Harpal Singh, who assumed charge as the advisor to the government on the SLBC tunnel works on Wednesday, met the chief minister at the latter’s residence.
Singh, who was instrumental in the construction of Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh, explained to Revanth Reddy the strategies to be adopted in the SLBC tunnel.
Earlier, he, along with senior officials, contractors and technical experts attended a meeting convened by state irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy to review geological surveys, restoration strategies, and safety measures.
Singh, drawing from his experience with the Atal Tunnel, stressed that ventilation, redundant systems, and documentation of methodology were vital for deep tunnelling works. He also insisted on training young engineers to build capacity within Telangana.
Uttam Kumar Reddy told the experts that the state government had opted for a heli-borne survey, one of the latest technologies in the world, which will be carried out by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI). The survey will identify shear zones, weak rock formations, and fault lines along the remaining alignment, allowing engineers to anticipate risks and prepare corrective measures.
“We must be 99 percent sure of what we will encounter. Crisis management cannot be the approach; preparedness is the only option,” the minister said.
