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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada on Tuesday 13 October 2026 to discuss river water, a meeting that ETV Bharat reported was Vijay’s first official visit to Andhra Pradesh since taking office. Andhra minister Nara Lokesh also attended the courtesy call.
The main subject was the proposed interlinking of the Godavari and Cauvery rivers. As described in the report, the plan would divert Godavari waters through a chain of reservoirs, running from the Krishna to Bollapalli, then the Penna, Kandaleru and finally the Cauvery, to serve irrigation and drinking water needs across southern states. Naidu said that the Godavari water, which “currently flows wastefully into the sea”, could benefit farmers in several states. Both leaders agreed to pursue the project in partnership with neighbouring states and with the central government, the report said.
The second subject was Chennai’s drinking water. The report said that 4.08 TMC of water has been released this year from the Telugu Ganga project, which brings Krishna water to Tamil Nadu, and that Tamil Nadu asked for more. Andhra Pradesh replied that it was “examining the feasibility based on water availability” and that it was ready to help “on humanitarian grounds”. No release schedule or quantity was announced in the reports reviewed here. A TMC, or thousand million cubic feet, is the usual unit for reservoir volumes in southern India.
The visit was reported in advance as covering the Krishna water shortfall. Several outlets described the agenda as the release of Krishna water and the Godavari–Cauvery proposal, and the Telugu Ganga arrangement under which Andhra Pradesh supplies Chennai has long been a source of discussion between the two states when reservoirs run low. The stakes are higher in years of weak rainfall, when both states want to protect their own farmers first.
The meeting took place during Vijayawada Utsav 2.0 at Punnami Ghat, where both leaders attended cultural programmes and were given traditional honours, according to ETV Bharat. Vijay also offered prayers at the Kanaka Durga temple on Indrakeeladri, as media reports said, making the trip a mix of ceremony and policy. For Vijay, who recently won the Tamil Nadu assembly election, it was the first visit to the neighbouring state as chief minister.
The Telugu Ganga project, also called the Krishna Water Supply Project, was started in the 1980s to bring drinking water to Chennai. According to Wikipedia, water is drawn from the Srisailam reservoir and carried through linked canals for about 406 kilometres to the Poondi reservoir near Chennai, passing the Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs. The 1977 agreement behind it involved Tamil Nadu and the Krishna riparian states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which is why releases depend on storage in the Krishna basin.
The outcome so far is a shared commitment to explore the interlinking proposal, not a decision. The project would need clearances and funding from the Centre, agreement from the states along the route, and detailed studies, none of which have been announced. Nor has the extra water for Chennai been promised. IndiaX24 will report on any follow-up meeting of officials, any decision on additional releases from the Telugu Ganga project, and any central government response to the interlinking proposal.
Featured image: The Prakasam Barrage across the Krishna River at Vijayawada (file photo, 2016). Photo by Hari K Patibanda, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.