TS & AP agree to hand over management of Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar to Krishna River Management Board

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states have agreed to hand over management of the two common projects – Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB). In a crucial meeting held in Hyderabad, the Engineers in Chief of both the States agreed the hand over the projects to the KRMB.

With this, the long pending issues of management of the common projects have been resolved. However, the two Telugu states disagreed on the management of the hydroelectric projects. Telangana had been arguing that the Srisailam project was sanctioned as a Hydroelectric project by the Planning Commission in 1962 for supplying 264 TMC to the Nagarjunasagar project.

Speaking to the media after the KRMB meeting, Engineer in Chief of Telangana, C Muralidhar said Telangana agreed to hand over the operation of common projects to KRMB. He said however no decision was taken on the operation of the hydroelectric projects and for the time being, Telangana will look after Nagarjuna Sagar and AP will look after Srisailam. He pointed out that the Telangana Government enlisted its concerns to the Jala Shakti ministry and was waiting for their reply.

Engineer In Chief of Andhra Pradesh, Narayana Reddy said out of the 15 projects that were under the KRMB, nine were in Telangana and the remaining in AP and that they have no objection to handing over the management to KRMB. He also said the three-member committee will decide on the share of Krishna River water, and operational protocol.