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Naidu thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending full support for the Polavaram project.
Polavaram (West Godavari): Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending full support for the Polavaram project.
Inspecting the works, here on Tuesday, Naidu said, “I called the Prime Minister on phone this morning. He assured me that the Centre would bear 100 per cent of the Polavaram cost, since it has been declared a national project.
Speaking to reporters on the occasion, he vowed to complete the first phase of Polavaram project before the rainy season of 2018. He inspected the Polavaram project works on Tuesday and pressed mining excavator worth Rs 70 crore and six dumpers worth Rs 20 crore into service
It may be mentioned here that the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier stated that the Centre’s share would cover only the irrigation component and put the estimates at over Rs 16,000 crore. Though Jaitley did not specify, if the Centre would foot the resettlement and rehabilitation bill as well, Naidu said it would cover the R&R component as well, amounting to another Rs 14,000 crore.
The Chief Minister mentioned that the modern equipment was purchased in order to complete the project by 2018. “We will not let Polavaram remain a dream. We will make it a reality. While a total of 1,049 lakh cubic metres of earthwork was supposed to be done as part of the project construction, 410 lakh cubic meters has been completed so far. We have imported high-powered machinery to carry out the earthwork,” he said
He said that works would be supervised every third Monday through drone cameras. He claimed that he was the only Chief Minister in the history to visit the project site and maintained that the State’s irrigation and drinking water needs would be addressed with the project.
Naidu dubbed the 5.5 km spillway and spill channel being constructed to enable discharge of 50 lakh cusecs of water as the largest in the world. “Godavari had seen a flood discharge of 36 lakh cusecs of water in a day. The highest discharge from Krishna was 11 lakh cusecs. So, we have designed Polavaram for a discharge of 50 lakh cusecs,” he stated.
He criticised that the Opposition parties were trying to obstruct the project. He said in no uncertain terms that TDP government would not compromise on the development of the State and vowed that justice would be done to the Polavaram displaced people.
Ministers Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao and Peethala Sujatha, Rajya Sabha MP Thota Seetha Ramalakshmi, district collector Katamaneni Bhaskar and others were present.
