Andhra government puts Rayalaseema irrigation programme at INR 20,884 crore
The Andhra Pradesh government pegs its Rayalaseema irrigation programme at INR 20,884 crore, promising 52 TMC more water across a water-scarce region. The open question: how much of that is actually spent and reaching farms, rather than sanctioned on paper.
The Andhra Pradesh government says irrigation works worth INR 20,884 crore are under way across Rayalaseema - a programme it expects to add 52 TMC of water availability and extend irrigation to nearly 9.80 lakh acres in one of the state's most water-scarce regions.
Rayalaseema's difficulty has long been the gap between irrigation potential created on paper and water actually reaching the farm: a distinction the government's own account acknowledges. Whether INR 20,884 crore of works narrows it turns on how much has been spent rather than sanctioned, and how much reaches fields rather than remaining a design target: a split the government has not broken out.
The works are expected to stabilise irrigation over 4.37 lakh acres on completion, the government says. Its flagship is the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi, where it says around INR 3,880 crore has been invested within a year, plus INR 3,145 crore for canal strengthening, supporting over 6 lakh acres and drinking water for about 33 lakh people. A separate INR 4,500 crore programme covers modernising the state's 1,049 lift-irrigation schemes for a targeted 8.2 lakh acres; and of 1,011 tanks taken up for restoration, 530 have been filled, the government says.
The programme also sidesteps the region's most contested project. The government has effectively shelved the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme; Water Resources Minister Nimmala Ramanaidu has argued it offered little additional water while creating heavy financial, legal and environmental liabilities, citing a National Green Tribunal halt and penalty. The opposition YSR Congress, which launched the scheme in 2020, says nearly 85% of it was completed at about ₹990 crore under its government and accuses the Naidu administration of stalling it since 2024 for political reasons.
The headline figures are official estimates covering works at varying stages of completion; the government calls the effort among the largest under way in the state.
