Ahead of the Apex Council meeting, scheduled to be held on August 5, to discuss the disputes over river water disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) has once again asked the AP State government to stop Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project (RLIP) and not to proceed with the process of tenders.
In a letter addressed to the Special Chief Secretary of the Water Resources Department of AP, Member of the KRMB Harikesh Meena, has drawn the attention of the AP government to its two letters addressed earlier in the same matter in the third week of May and first week of July and asked it to stop any work/process on RLIP. The river board’s fresh letter to AP comes in the wake of Telangana complaint to it for the third time on the project proposed by AP.
The river board has reiterated in its latest communication that giving administrative approval and proceeding with the tenders process in case of RLIP was in violation of the Section 84 and Para-7 of the XI Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act. Further, the KRMB official has also pointed out in his letter to AP government that it (AP) has not submitted the detailed project report (DPR) of the proposed project to the board as well as the Central Water Commission (CWC) for appraisal.
Accordingly, the river board has directed AP on two earlier occasions too not to go ahead with projects proposed by it till they are appraised by KRMB and CWC as also the approval of the Apex Council is obtained. Telangana government, in its letter to the river board on July 25, has brought to the notice of KRMB that AP was going ahead with the tender process for RLIP without complying with its (KRMB’s) instructions and getting the project proposal appraised by KRMB and CWC.
Meanwhile, the Telangana government has found fault with the AP government for proceeding with RLIP in spite of instructions against taking up any work related to the project proposal, including the process of tenders. Recently, the AP government had called for tenders for works worth ₹3,278.18 crore for execution of RLIP in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) method in 30 months.
According to the notification issued by the AP government, the last date for filing of tenders is August 10 and the technical and commercial bids are scheduled to be opened on August 12 and 13. It has plans to conduct the reverse tendering process on August 17 with the lowest bid taken as the benchmark and the successful bidder is expected to be finalised by August 19.
