Polavaram to provide water to 75.38 lakh acres

Amaravati: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu advised the irrigation officials to see that maximum area in the State should get benefit from Polavaram project.

When the officials informed the Chief Minister that nearly 75.38 lakh acres will get irrigation facility with the completion of Polavaram project, the Chief Minister advised the officials to prepare a report on the extent of area in each district to be benefitted from Polavaram project. Chandrababu Naidu conducted virtual review on the progress of Polavaram project works on Monday.

The irrigation officials said additional 32.2 lakh acres will get irrigation facility with Polavaram project in addition to stabilising 43.18 lakh acres. The project will help to supply 7.32 tmc ft of drinking water to Visakhapatnam and 16.12 tmc ft of water for industrial purposes.

They said that Polavaram canals will provide drinking water to 28.5 lakh people in 540 villages in addition to supplying 5 tmc ft  of water to Odisha and 1.5 tmc ft to Chhattisgarh.

The officials said 63.27 per cent of project works were completed so far and the project concrete works enter into Guinness book of world records by completing 28,000 to 30,000 cubic metres of concrete works on January 7.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to complete the R&R package works by March 2019. The officials said the State govt spent Rs 15,380.97 crore and the Central govt has to release Rs 3,517.84 crore. They said 4.36 lakh farmers, students and others visited the Polavaram project so far.

Minister for Water Resources Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary G Saiprasad, Principal secretary of Water Resources Dept  Sasibushan Kumar, R&R Commissioner Rekharani, ENC M Venkateswara Rao and others were present.