The fruits of Polavaram Project for residuary Andhra Pradesh ‘impoverished’ by bifurcation seem to be moving further and further away like a mirage. The erstwhile Telugu Desam Party Government initially said that it would send water into the canals by gravity using the cofferdam to impound it in 2018, but later revised it to 2019. The Jagan Mohan Reddy Government that took over in the last polls this year said that it would complete the project by 2021.
The amount of work completed in the project has, however, become a bone of contention. While the erstwhile government claimed that it completed more than 60% of the project, the current government has put the figure at 33%.
The daunting task ahead of the State was getting the Centre to part with ₹40,000 crore in the next two years for completion of the project in 2021.
Progress
According to the latest figures the “total project progress” was 33%. As per a break up head works 58.97%, right main canal 91.69%, left main canal 69.96% have been completed and only 15.43% of Land Acquisition (LA) and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) have been completed till now.
According to the Revised Cost Estimate at 2017-18 price level, the cost of LA and R&R was ₹32,509.26 crore, head works ₹9,734.34 crore, Right and Left Main Canals ₹9,180.61 and power house ₹4,124.64 crore, totally up to ₹55,548.87 crore.
In financial terms, of the ₹51,424.24 crore only 33% that is ₹16,975.89 crore had been spent till date. The Centre has to still reimburse ₹5,100 crore to the State out of the money it has already spent on the project. Unless the State government is able to get the Centre to disburse a minimum of ₹20,000 crore per year this is no scope of finishing the project as per the 2021 deadline.
The Central Experts Committee which met in Vijayawada on Sunday made it clear that the gaps in the cofferdam should not be closed until all the habitations below contour 41.15 meters were relocated. The panel can only recommend that funds be released, it was up to the Centre to take a call on it.
