Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu
Reiterating that water security is essential for the state’s development, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said the government has rightly focused on interlinking the rivers, from Vamsadhara to Penn, as an immediate priority under its micro-management strategy.
Another thing would be a much bigger project to link the Godavari and Krishna rivers, he said, while stressing the need for states to share river waters amicably.
Specifically, he said that Telangana’s opposition to the Polavaram-Nallamala Sagar project was unjustifiable as Andhra Pradesh (AP) intended to use only the flood waters that flowed into the sea. He pointed out that as a lower coastal state, AP has no objection to the Kaleshwaram project.
During a discussion on the demand for grants for the Water Resources Department in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu suggested that the colossal wastage of water in the Godavari river should be curbed by pumping it to the maximum extent possible.
The Chief Minister recalled that the Task Force on Inter-Linking of Rivers, headed by Suresh Prabhu way back in 2002, had done some great work to implement the ambitious project of inter-linking of peninsular rivers but had not made the desired progress after the Congress-led UPA took over the reins in 2004.
He claimed that the Polavaram project would be completed before the start of Godavari Pushkarams in 2027.
Mr. Naidu recalled that the credit for supplying water from the Krishna River to Chennai through the Telugu Ganga Project goes to NT Rama Rao, whose vision gave shape to most of the projects under discussion now. Neither the Congress nor the YSR Congress Party played any role in the construction of these projects, he claimed.
Veligonda project
Further, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said that the government has committed to supply water from Veligonda Phase-I project by July and Pattiseema project has helped in irrigating thousands of hectares in Krishna delta besides taking water to Rayalaseema.
An amount of ₹2,000 crore has been spent on 11 projects in the Uttarandhra region and steps have been taken to start the operation of the lift at Chintalapudi as soon as possible.
Water user associations were tasked with managing the water resources available to them to contribute to water security, Mr. Naidu said, adding that the ultimate goal was to make Andhra Pradesh a drought-resilient state.
Published – 26 Feb 2026 18:59 IST
