TD leaders fight for HNSS work

Vijayawada: Telugu Desam leaders are fighting each other to get tenders for the Handri Niva — Sujala Sravanthi  project. The HNSS canal widening and distributing channel works is worth more than Rs 1,000 crore.

A Rajya Sabha MP and an Anantapur MLC are said to be exerting pressure on officials by making references to the CMO to grab the tenders. They are even threatening officials to get them to stop others from taking part in the tender process. This has led to other contractors and leaders getting upset with the TD MP.

However, this has been denied by water resources minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao who said that there was no political intervention in the tender process.

HNSS Project Phase-I starts near Malyala village, Nandikotkur mandal, Kurnool district. It involves lifting 14 tmc ft of water from Krishna river from the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir in nine lifts, including Muchchumarri lift ranging from 24 to 31.20m height.

The project includes construction of three reservoirs on the main canal and a 216-km length canal connecting the pump houses to provide irrigation facilities to 1,98,000 acres in Kurnool and Anantapur districts besides providing drinking water to a population of 10 lakh in 144 villages.

One branch canal, the Peruru Branch Canal spread over 80,600 acre, with three lifts is included in Phase-I. The Phase-I work has been taken up as Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who had attended the Neeru-Pragathi programme in Anantapur on April 20, had on the spot given an administrative sanction of Rs 1,070 crore for the project. The canal widening work is split  into three sections worth Rs 400 crore, Rs 325 crore and Rs 345 crore each.

Since then, the TD bigshot has allegedly been lobbying with reputed engineering and construction companies from Telangana as well as AP. Even TD members who couldn’t get the expected posts in the party are making a bid to bag the project tenders.

The tenders are closed for two of the three packages in the project. RS MP and Anantapur MLC XX XXXXhad tried not to let others file their tenders with maximum excess quotations.

They are also accused of pressuring concerned engineers to convince others - in the CMO's name - to withdraw their tenders. With this, five companies had participated for first the package and four companies for the second package.

The process of eliminating tenders,  either in the technical bid or price bid, is on and has led to unrest among TD leaders and contractors.