Vijayawada: CM N Chandrababu Naidu releases white paper on Polavaram project

Vijayawada : The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday released a white paper, shedding light on what it perceives as the challenges pertaining to the multipurpose Polavaram project following the negligence and wrong policies adopted by the previous YSRCP government between 2019-2024.

Releasing the white paper, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the alliance government had inherited several problems and Polavaram happens to be one of the major challenges before the government. The YSRCP government had issued notices to the contractors the day YS Jagan Mohan Reddy took oath as CM to stop works, enacted the ‘drama’ of reverse tendering and diverted Rs 3,385 crore released by the Central government for the project works. In the name of reverse tendering, the project was put on the reverse gear.

“While the YSRCP government had alleged large-scale irregularities and corruption in projects work during the TDP regime, the Union government on December 2, 2019, stated in Parliament that there were neither any irregularities nor did any corruption took place in the project works,” Naidu said.

The YSRCP government which claimed it would save Rs 738 crore by reverse tendering saved nothing but damaged the diaphragm wall.

By the time the TDP went out of power, 72% of works were completed and it had spent Rs 11,537 crore on the project. The project was ignored by the YSRCP government only because of the vindictive mentality of Jagan Mohan Reddy, he said.

The Chief Minister said that an expert committee from the USA and Canada will soon inspect the damage caused to the coffer dam due to floods. The government will go through their report and recommendations before deciding how and where to re-start the work. If the government has to reconstruct the diaphragm wall it may cost about Rs 990 crore. If there is scope for restoring it by taking up some repair works, then it may cost the government approximately Rs 447 crore. A lot depends on what recommendations the expert committees would give, he added. Naidu said this should become a case study and people should discuss in depth how an inefficient politician who does not know what governance is can ruin the state and its resources. “He had kept everyone in dark and misled even the Assembly giving different dates every year regarding the project becoming fully operational. It is a classic example of misadministration,” he added.