Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the first phase of the Veligonda irrigation project on Sunday, fulfilling a pledge he made three decades ago as a young politician, as Krishna river water began flowing through a tunnel system into drought-prone Rayalaseema for the first time.
“I have kept my promise,” Naidu told a gathering of farmers, party workers, and officials at the project site, visibly moved as water surged through the tunnel into the Nallamala Sagar reservoir. The ceremony, which drew thousands from the surrounding villages, marked the culmination of a project that had survived multiple governments, cost revisions, engineering setbacks, and years of public frustration.
The first phase involves releasing approximately 10.70 thousand million cubic feet of water from the Srisailam reservoir into the Nallamala Sagar, a key balancing reservoir in the tunnel network. Officials said the water will eventually provide irrigation coverage to roughly 1.19 lakh acres of farmland and drinking water to an estimated 4 lakh people across Nellore, Prakasam, and Kadapa districts.
What Happened
The inauguration ceremony, held at the project complex in the Nallamala hills on Sunday morning, was accompanied by traditional rituals and celebrations by local communities who have waited generations for reliable water access. Naidu, who laid the project’s foundation stone in the mid-1990s, pressed the button to open the sluice gates at Srisailam, signaling the release of water into the 43.5-kilometer tunnel system that bisects the Nallamala range.
The tunnel, a centerpiece of the Veligonda project’s engineering design, threads through mountainous terrain to carry Krishna water across the Eastern Ghats into the water-starved Rayalaseema region. According to state irrigation department officials, the tunnel system is among the longest of its kind in South India, having required multiple construction phases and repeated interventions to navigate fault lines and underground water pockets encountered during excavation.
Why It Matters
The Veligonda project addresses one of Andhra Pradesh’s most persistent regional inequities: the stark contrast between the water-abundant coastal districts and the chronically drought-prone Rayalaseema interior. The three districts served by the project — Prakasam, Kadapa, and Nellore — have historically recorded lower agricultural productivity, higher rates of farmer distress, and more acute drinking water shortages than the state’s coastal regions, despite sharing a state border with one of India’s most irrigated river basins.
For the farmers of Rayalaseema, the first phase inauguration translates into a tangible shift from rain-fed, unreliable cultivation to a potentially two-crop annual cycle supported by regulated irrigation. Agricultural economists familiar with the region estimate that bringing 1.19 lakh acres under assured irrigation could increase annual crop output by 15 to 20 percent in affected areas, with paddy, cotton, and pulses being the primary beneficiaries.
The drinking water component is equally significant. State health officials have documented recurring water contamination incidents and waterborne disease outbreaks in the project area during dry seasons, driven by over-extraction of groundwater from declining borewells. The Nallamala Sagar supply is expected to supplement and, in some areas, replace these groundwater sources for municipal distribution networks serving roughly 400 villages and towns.
From a political standpoint, the inauguration also carries weight for Naidu, who staked significant political capital on the Veligonda project across multiple electoral cycles. The Telugu Desam Party has consistently featured the project in its development messaging for Rayalaseema, and its completion — even in a partial first phase — provides a concrete counter to opposition charges that large-scale infrastructure promises from previous administrations remain unfulfilled.
Background and Context
The Veligonda project was first conceived in the 1970s as a means to address the chronic underutilization of Krishna river water allocations in the Rayalaseema region. The Krishna river, which flows through Andhra Pradesh’s northern districts before emptying into the Bay of Bengal, has historically served the coastal and delta regions far more than the interior. Rayalaseema, which lies east and south of the river’s main channel, received minimal surface water benefits under the existing canal infrastructure.
The project as currently configured involves diverting water from the Srisailam reservoir — one of the largest multipurpose reservoirs on the Krishna — through a series of tunnels and canals across the Nallamala hills into the Penna river basin. The tunnel system, which runs through geologically complex forested terrain in the Eastern Ghats, has required an estimated 43.5 kilometers of tunneling work, according to state irrigation department records.
Naidu, then a relatively young politician, laid the foundation stone for the project in 1995 during his first term as Chief Minister. However, construction faced repeated delays under subsequent governments, including periods of financial constraint, contractor disputes, and environmental clearance hurdles associated with tunneling through the Nallamala forest range, which falls partly within protected ecological zones.
Cost estimates for the project have risen substantially over the decades. Initial projections in the 1990s placed the project cost at a few hundred crore rupees; by the time the current phase was approved, the outlay had expanded to several thousand crore, reflecting both scope expansions and the cumulative impact of inflation and delayed execution.
The project also navigated legal and regulatory complexity involving inter-state water sharing. Andhra Pradesh shares the Krishna river’s waters with Maharashtra and Karnataka under the provisions of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, and allocations to the Veligonda project have had to be reconciled within those predetermined shares, adding a layer of bureaucratic coordination to the engineering challenges.
What to Watch Next
While Sunday’s inauguration marks a milestone, the Veligonda project remains a work in progress. State irrigation officials have indicated that the first phase, while operational, requires further canal construction to fully distribute water to the intended 1.19 lakh acres. Secondary canal networks, distributary systems, and on-farm irrigation infrastructure are still under various stages of construction, meaning full agricultural benefits may not be realized until subsequent phases are completed over the coming years.
The state government has reportedly budgeted for continued expenditure on the project in the current fiscal year, with particular focus on completing the canal network connecting Nallamala Sagar to farmlands in Prakasam and Kadapa districts. Officials to watch include the state Irrigation Minister and senior officials of the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Department, who will oversee the pace of remaining work.
There is also attention on how the water release affects downstream users and ecological flows in the Nallamala Sagar and Penna river basin. Environmental groups have previously raised concerns about the cumulative impact of large-scale inter-basin transfers on riverine ecosystems, though project proponents argue that the water originates from Srisailam’s allocated share and that ecological safeguards have been built into the design.
The political dimension will also continue to develop. With state elections potentially approaching within the next year or two, the Veligonda inauguration provides the TDP-led government with a flagship development achievement in a region that has historically demanded greater infrastructure attention. Opposition parties are likely to scrutinize whether the project’s benefits reach ordinary farmers as promised, or whether distribution bottlenecks and canal delays limit its impact.
Finally, the performance of the tunnel infrastructure under actual operational conditions will be monitored closely. Engineering failures or maintenance issues in tunnel systems of comparable scale have occurred elsewhere in India, and the quality of construction work — carried out across multiple phases under different contractors and governments — will determine whether the system delivers consistent water flows over the long term.
Conclusion
The inauguration of the Veligonda project’s first phase represents a significant, if overdue, milestone for Andhra Pradesh’s water infrastructure and for the farmers of Rayalaseema who have endured decades of unreliable water supply. While the project is not yet complete, and questions remain about distribution infrastructure, water allocation compliance, and long-term operational reliability, the flow of Krishna water into Nallamala Sagar marks a concrete step toward addressing one of the state’s most persistent regional imbalances.
For Naidu, who made the project a symbol of his political commitment to Rayalaseema’s development, Sunday’s ceremony delivered a moment of personal vindication. Whether the infrastructure delivers its full promised benefits — and whether those benefits reach the farmers and households who need them most — will be the measure against which this achievement is ultimately judged.
Sources: The Hindu
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Story synopsis gathered from: The Hindu – National — source
