No takers for water supply barrage tenders

Vijayawada: The tender process for construction of the barrage between Damuluru-Vaikunthapuram to supply drinking water to Amaravati capital city has once again failed to attract the contractors. Several prominent contractors and construction companies did not come to participate in the tender process.

The final date for tender schedule ended two days ago, but no one expressed interest to participate in the bidding process consecutively for the third time. The officials of Water Resources department also experienced piquant situation and they are trying to find out reasons from various contracting companies.

The Water Resources department called for tenders for the construction of the barrage three times so far at an estimated cost of Rs 1,069.72 crore. As many as 5,000 acres of land is required for this project and it was excluded from estimated cost.

Nearly 10 tmcft water can be stored from the proposed reservoir. Now the State government made plans to construct bridge in the upstream of Prakasam barrage with a view to preserve flood water from Munneru and other tributaries of Khammam district. The flood water can be saved and diverted to the needs of capital city, it is felt.

Moreover, the barrage will connect Amaravati capital city to Krishna district and also Hyderabad national highway. In this backdrop, the project assumed significance. Meanwhile, Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao also assured the people of Mylavaram constituency several times to complete the works before forthcoming elections.

Krishna Delta Chief Engineer R Satish Kumar said that they would explain the situation to the government. Speaking to The Hans India, he said that the escalation of project cost or changes of any issues should be taken up by the State government after examining the details.