Andhra Pradesh government is all set to inaugurate Pattiseema lift irrigation project. The project is described as the first river linking project in country. The project deals with connecting Godavari with Krishna.

• The first pump of this Rs 1,300-crore project was installed and switched on in September, 2015, about six months after the project contract was awarded to Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) on condition to complete the entire project in one year.
• The project was designed to lift 80 tmc (trillion metric cubic feet) of flood water in a span of 110 days during the flooding season between July and October from Godavari as was permitted by the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal (GWDT) from the ongoing Polavaram Multi-purpose Irrigation Project.
• The government had come up with the idea of building a lift irrigation scheme at Pattiseema village in Polavaram Mandal in West Godavari district in January 2015 to quickly get Godavari water to meet the irrigation needs of Krishna delta, which was started facing increased water shortage in recent times, as the main project was expected to take a longer time.
• From this project, water is pumped up to a nearby point and discharged into Polavaram Right Main Canal, which carry water by gravity to a tributary of River Krishna about 170 km away in the neighboring Krishna district above the Prakasham barrage.

The project contains 24 motors and 24 pumps of 6,300 HP and 5,300 HP respectively with a combined capacity to discharge 8,500 cusecs of water.The project requires 113 mw of power to run all the 24 pumps as each motor require 4.7 mw of power to lift the water.

Godavari-Krishna linkage will benefit the Krishna delta in terms of timely availability and adequate quantities of water even for raising the second crop.