Central Water Tribunal gives GO-AHEAD for upper cofferdam design

Amaravati: The Water Resources department officials informed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday that the upper cofferdam designs of Polavaram Irrigation Project were approved by the Central Water Tribunal (CWT) and hoped that the lower cofferdam designs also will get approval very soon. 

Further, the officials said that they completed more than 50 per cent of concrete works at the Polavaram Project site during a review meeting at the Secretariat at Velagapudii.

So far, over 61 per cent of the total works of Polavaram Project have been completed. When the officials informed that people have been visiting Polavaram to see the progress of the works, Chandrababu Naidu asked them to ensure that people from all sections of the society visit the multipurpose project.

Naidu asked the officials to encourage the civil engineering students in the State to visit the project. He said that going to the project site would bring more awareness to them and it would be helpful for their careers.

He pointed out that the Central government still has to release more than Rs 3,200 crore to the State government towards the expenses incurred on the project. After announcing the project as a national project, the entire expenditure must be borne by the Centre, he pointed out. Water Resources Minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao and senior officials participated.

Earlier, holding a review meeting on Neeru-Pragathi, the Chief Minister said that the State is likely to receive rains at the end of November or first week of December.

Naidu said the State achieved another milestone with the launching of works for interlinking of rivers Godavari and Penna. Already, Andhra Pradesh had become the first State in the country to interlink rivers by bringing Godavari waters to River Krishna, he pointed out.

He said that the State government’s objective is to link all the five major rivers in the State so as to ensure adequate water supply to the farmers and all the 365 days in any given year. This would increase productivity tremendously, he said. 

Chandrababu Naidu said that Amaravati attracted world’s attention by successfully conducting events such as Air Show and F1H2O boat races in the capital city. He said Andhra Pradesh became number one in many areas, including ease of doing business, ease of living, implementation of MGNREGA and others.