Nagar Kurnool: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has reiterated his government’s commitment to completing the long-pending Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel project, expressing concern that it remains unfinished more than four decades after its approval in 1983. During his visit to Mannevaripalle in Nagar Kurnool district on Monday, the Chief Minister inspected the helicopter and advanced equipment prepared for the heli-magnetic survey of the project area.
Revanth Reddy stated that the use of tunnel boring machines had posed challenges to the progress of the project but assured that it would be completed despite all obstacles. The project, initially estimated at Rs 1,968 crore, has faced several delays over the past 20 years. He noted that by the time Telangana was formed, 30 kilometers of the tunnel had been completed, but the previous K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) government failed to finish the remaining 10 kilometers. He alleged that the project was sidelined due to “lack of commission interests.”
The Chief Minister criticized the KCR government for neglecting Krishna river-based irrigation projects, pointing out that while Andhra Pradesh under Jagan Mohan Reddy expanded the Pothireddypadu project, Telangana failed to take similar initiatives. He said an investment of Rs 2,000 crore could have brought irrigation water to Nalgonda district but was ignored for political reasons. Revanth further alleged that the previous government paid Rs 1.86 lakh crore to irrigation contractors in ten years, including Rs 1.06 lakh crore for the Kaleshwaram project alone, without completing any major project on the Krishna River.