Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday set kharif 2025 as the new deadline to commission the Polavaram irrigation project across river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing the gathering of Godavari flood victims at Kukkunuru Mandal of Eluru district, Mr. Jagan said: “The State government’s ultimate schedule is to commission the Polavaram irrigation project in the kharif season of 2025. By July or August 2025, Godavari water will be stored to the level of +41.5 contour at the Polavaram irrigation project”.
He said that ₹17,000 crore of grant was expected from the Centre for the project. The recommendations by the Jal Shakthi Ministry for the grant were mostly likely to be approved by the Central Cabinet by August-end.
Mr. Jagan said that once the grant was received, the construction and the first phase of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) could be completed as per the revised cost estimate (2022-23) to make way for the commissioning of the project. Of the ₹17,000 crore grant, ₹5,200 crore had been proposed to be spared for the R&R package.
Rehabilitation:
The Chief Minister alleged that barely 3,000 Project Displaced Families (PDF) had been rehabilitated during 2014 to 19.
“By mid-2023, 12,000 PDFs have been rehabilitated. A total of 8,000 more PDFs will be rehabilitated soon and ₹800 crore will be released for their rehabilitation by September 10,: Mr. Jagan said. The Chief Minister promised to offer ₹3.5 lakh additional package for each acre for the 47,000 acres acquired for the Polavaram irrigation project during the period of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
Citing damage to the Polavaram project diaphragm wall, Mr. Jagan said the State Government needed to compromise on the project deadline as the Centre was executing the project.
Unviable undertaking:
Mr. Jagan alleged that unplanned execution by the previous government, led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, remained the cause for the delay in the completion of the Polavaram project.
“Then Chief Minister Mr. Chandrababu Naidu had given an unviable undertaking to the Centre to complete the Polavaram project with the 2014 cost estimate. The technical investigation by the experts on the damage to the diaphragm wall also consumed a lot of time, leading to the delay of the project,” the Chief Minister said.
Home Minister T. Vanita, Polavaram MLA Tellam Balaraju, Eluru District Collector V. Prasanna Venkatesh and other officials were present.
