Polavaram to be named National Project within 10 days

The Central government is most likely to accord the Polavaram project as a National Project, most probably within the next ten days, if that is the indication received from highly placed government sources.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is expected to visit New Delhi on May 6 to seek more funds for the state budget.

Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy was briefed on the Budgetary proposals from the Planning Department officials headed by Special Chief Secretary S P Tucker. With the Finance Minister away in Kadapa district, the entire exercise to update the Chief Minister’s presentation in New Delhi rested on the Planning Department officials.

 The Chief Minister’s presentation of plan size of the state will include, among others, finalizing the State Budget and seeking allotment of more funds.

As per official estimates, it was Rs 42,900 crore plus. This figure may swell in view of the Centre’s possible nod for the much delayed Polavaram project.

Government sources explained that the state had sought the Central approval for both the Polavaram and Pranahitha-Chevella projects as National Project. But the centre is understood to have given the option for any one project for approval and the natural choice was Polavaram.

Hopefully the dreams of people of Andhra Pradesh would be filled with the Centre likely to okay the Polavaram project as a National Project.

Work on the project began in April 2006 and was expected to be completed by February 2007. After 30 per cent work of excavation work on the canals and 15 per cent of the spillway works had been completed, the work was halted in May 2006 to seek clearance from the Ministry of Forests and Environment.

Based on the estimated water requirements in 2025, the Central Water Commission recommended that sizable surplus water was to be transferred from the Godavari River basin to the Krishna River basin. The project was intended to benefit a cultivated command area of 175,000 hectares (430,000 acres) and supply water to Visakhapatnam through a 208 km canal.

In July 1941, the first proposal for the project came from the erstwhile Madras state. The then Irrigation Department made the first survey of the project site and made a proposal for a reservoir at Polavaram.

 The full reservoir level was proposed to be at 150 feet and the approximate water storage was 1,000,000,000 cubic feet.