Hyderabad: The ambitious Sitamma Sagar multipurpose project, which has been taken up in the old Khammam district, has got technical clearance from the Central Water Commission (CWC). Commission Chairman Mukhesh Kumar Sinha held a meeting with technical agencies in New Delhi and granted the clearance to the project. The Centre also decided to allocate 67 TMC of water for the Sitamma Sagar project. The technical clearance will help the state government to speed up the construction of the barrage. Deputy Chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka congratulated Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy for getting the required clearances from the Central agencies to complete the project.

The state government has been pursuing with the CWC to get the technical clearances for the project for the last one year.

It may be mentioned here that the secretary of the Department of Water Resources raised apprehensions about the design safety of the project in light of a recent report by the National Dam Safety Authority Committee.

The committee then observed that the design aspects of the project would be appraised by the CWC within a month. The project authorities should collaborate with the MoEF&CC to address and mitigate the project’s environmental impact, including resolving outstanding issues.