World's biggest lift irrigation project is flowing in India

Pumping stations have started lifting river water toward parched land in southern India in what’s said to be the world’s largest such irrigation project.

Some of the 19 pump stations on the Godavari River began lifting water on Friday to a record height of 618 meters (2,020 feet) aimed at irrigating nearly 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) in Telangana state instead of the floodwaters flowing to the sea.

The project was built at an estimated cost of 880 billion rupees ($12.9 billion) in three years.

The top elected official in Telangana state, Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao, said the project is the world’s largest using lift irrigation. Experts say the Colorado River in the United States and the “Great Man-made River” in Libya had the world’s largest lift irrigations projects previously.