A deadline has been set, the clearances are in hand, and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is not waiting. On Friday, 23 October 2026, Naidu directed Water Resources Department officials to restart works on the Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Project from November 2026, declaring that all environmental clearances are already in place. Chairing a comprehensive review of the Water Resources Department at his camp office, Naidu issued a sweeping set of directives. He instructed officials to complete all 36 priority irrigation projects in line with their set targets and to prepare an action plan to commission every single one of them by December 2028. The message was unambiguous: no slippage.

Chintalapudi: Clearances Secured, Works to Resume

The Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Project is designed to pump water to upland areas in Andhra Pradesh that conventional gravity-fed canals cannot easily reach. The Chief Minister underlined that since all environmental approvals have been obtained, there is no justification for further delay. Restart from November, he told officials — and that was that. This directive lands against a backdrop of decades-old aspiration in the state to solve its regional water deficits through lift irrigation. Lift schemes such as Chintalapudi are critical precisely because they serve command areas left out of the delta canal network, and restarting works now puts the project back on a trajectory toward serving farmers who have waited years.

Solar Panels on Canals, Delta Modernisation, and Last-Acre Delivery

Beyond Chintalapudi, the review produced a broader vision for the department. Naidu directed officials to explore generating electricity by installing solar panels on irrigation canal networks — a dual-use infrastructure move that turns canal corridors into renewable energy assets while reducing the department's own power costs. On delta modernisation, he called for desilting of canals and systematic repair of locks, shutters, and gates to ensure water reaches the last acre of cultivated land. The instruction to restore every gate and shutter to operational fitness is the kind of granular, unglamorous governance that determines whether water policy actually works on the ground. A canal with a broken shutter is just a ditch. The Chief Minister also stressed that the department's overarching goal must be efficient water resource management and river interlinking — framing the individual projects as parts of a larger architecture for the state's water future.

Who Was in the Room

The review was attended by Water Resources Minister Nimmala Ramanaidu, the department's Special Chief Secretary Shashibhushan Kumar, and Chief Engineers. Their presence at a camp-office session signals that this was not a routine briefing — decisions taken in these settings carry direct accountability. With 36 projects to close out, a November construction restart on Chintalapudi, and a hard December 2028 deadline looming, Andhra Pradesh's irrigation bureaucracy now has both a map and a clock.