The Office Memorandum issued by the Finance Ministry on June 5, 2023, sanctioning an additional ₹12,911 crore for the Polavaram irrigation project across the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh has opened a window of opportunity for the State government to swiftly execute the project.
In fact, the Water Resources Department is considering the funds flow from the Union government as one of the major milestones in the project execution.
In an exclusive interview, Shashibhushan Kumar, Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, told The Hindu that “as per the normal guidelines on national projects for the country, the entire project goes under a particular project cost. The government does not insist on a component cost while making payments, or while reimbursing the payments done by the State governments. But, in the case of the Polavaram project, because of certain historical reasons, the concept of component-wise restrictions on payments had been introduced about three-and-a-half-years back within the overall project cost.”
