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Funding for Polavaram: Ambiguity stares at AP govt in its face
Uncertainty over funding continues to stalk the multi-purpose Polavaram project. The fate of the project came to the fore at a review meeting with the officials from the Irrigation department by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the secretariat on Monday.
​Amaravati: Uncertainty over funding continues to stalk the multi-purpose Polavaram project. The fate of the project came to the fore at a review meeting with the officials from the Irrigation department by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the secretariat on Monday.
Naidu expressed the hope that air of ambiguity will be cleared at a high-level meeting with the representatives from the NDA government scheduled on December 26.
When the state government estimated the project cost at Rs 32,000 crore as per the cost overruns, Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) has offered only Rs 18,000 crore as loan to be repaid by the Centre.
The Centre is bound to bear the project cost in full in line with the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The state government has volunteered to execute the works with a rider that the total cost should be borne by the Centre treating the project with a national status.
A delegation led by water resources minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao met Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati in Delhi with a request to clear the ambiguity with regard to funding and bear the total amount required for the Polavaram project.
The officials briefed the CM on the progress of spill way, approach channel and pilot channel works. They said the Polavaram project has achieved 72 per cent progress as of now.
Naidu wanted the data relating to the project works completed to be posted on the CM’s dashboard category wise.
A foundation stone was laid for the Polavaram project by former Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy in 2005 with an estimated cost of Rs 10,000-odd crore. Its cost touched Rs 16,000 crore when the cost revision took place in 2011.
The state cabinet which met a few months ago estimated the cost to be a whopping Rs 32,000 crore. The government has spent Rs 4,800cr during the current TDP regime.
As per the designs, 11-crore cubic meters of earthworks are supposed to be executed. But 4-crore cubic meters of works are only executed dill date. In spite of all odds, Naidu vows to realise the dream of Polavaram by 2018.
