Tenders for the spillway and the spill channel of the Polavaram project would be finalised in the second week of December and with it work would progress at full speed, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu told the Assembly here on Wednesday.
Speaking during a short discussion on the subject, Mr. Naidu said despite his best efforts, the executing agency could not achieve the required progress. Hence part of the works were being deleted under the provisions of 60 C of the contract and were being entrusted to new agencies through tenders.
The progress was good with regard to other components of head works except the concreting of the spillway and spill channel which was as low as 11.43% , compared to the 72 % in excavation for the spillway and the spill channel, 48% of diaphragm wall and 50% of radial gates fabrication.
Saying that it was not possible for AP to complete the project without the active involvement of the Centre, Mr. Naidu said that the State incurred an expenditure of ₹7,431.35 crore till October-end. The Centre had released ₹4,329.06 crore till date and another ₹3,102.29 crore would be released soon. “I was told that ₹318 crore was released a couple days ago,” Mr. Naidu said.
Mr. Naidu said a revised estimate of ₹58,319.06, crore, including the power project, was sent to the Centre. The cost of land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement came to ₹33,858.45 crore, he pointed out. Mr. Naidu said the Centre could not escape from paying either the escalation in the cost of the project or the enhanced expenditure under the Land Acquisition Act 2013.
‘In touch with Gadkari’
He read out excerpts from the minutes of the last Cabinet meeting of the Manmohan Singh government to make his point.
The CM said he spoke to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari a couple of days ago and sought permission to begin work on the downstream cofferdam and the next six months were the season for work.
Mr. Naidu said completion of the project was his life ambition.
