KRMB to form 3-man committee to decide water allocation between AP, T

Vijayawada: The Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has reportedly decided to constitute a three-man committee to decide water allocation between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. KRMB chairman Atul Jain presided over the governing body meeting held in Hyderabad on Tuesday. Senior officials from irrigation department from both Telugu states presented their arguments on water sharing from Krishna river basin projects during 2025-26.
Speaking to the media after the board meeting, AP irrigation engineer-in-chief (ENC) M Venkateswara Rao said that they have requested the board to continue the ongoing arrangement of 66:34 for water sharing between AP and Telangana. He said that Telangana demanded a share of water on 50:50 ratio to which AP had objected.
"We wanted the board to continue the existing water allocation system which has been in force for the past decade where AP is getting 66% and Telangana, around 34% percent of water from the project reserves. We have made this request particularly in the wake of Krishna water tribunal's decision to take up hearing on the issue of water allocations between Telugu states. Since it would take more time for the tribunal to take the final call, we wanted the board to continue the existing arrangement," said Venkateswara Rao.
The AP ENC added that the board chairman had promised to resolve the issue through a three-man committee without any controversies. The committee, comprising senior officials from both states, would take water indents from each state from time to time and make suitable recommendations based on the availability of water in Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar. Instead of making allocations for the entire season, the committee will review the water levels in the projects periodically and take a decision based on the requirement of each state.
Responding to Telangana's demand for installation of more telemetric devises on irrigation projects on AP soil, Venkateswara said that they would study the proposal once Telangana submits the list of locations where it wanted to install the telemetric devises.
"We will make the decision after consulting govt," he said. Telemetric devices are fitted to gauge the water utilisation from the particular project/location/installation.
Moreover, the board discussed about 30 different issues including withdrawal of CRPF forces from Nagarjunasagar project. AP demanded KRMB not only to continue the CRPF on Sagar project but to take all the irrigation projects in AP and Telangana into its control for effective management of water.
AP said that KRMB's `failure' in taking over the projects is causing irreparable loss to it. It also said Telangana has been drawing more water from Srisailam, "without a proper indent" from AP, for power generation.