AP government to take up Polavaram project, says minister

Vijayawada: Amidst speculation that the Centre may take over the execution of the Polavaram irrigation project in the wake of the AP government stalling its works by opting for reverse tendering by terminating the contract agreement with Navayuga Engieering Company and calling for fresh bids alleging irregularities.

However, minister for panchayat raj and rural develoment Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy ruled out any chance of handing over the project to the Centre and vowed to make efforts to finalise the contracts and start works to execute the project.

The minister said on Monday that they were going ahead with the reverse tendering process in order to call for bids and finalise them to take up project works.

He said that the Union minister for water resources, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, would visit the Polavaram project in September to inspect the progress of works.

It may be mentioned that the AP High Court issued a stay order earlier on the state government’s move to go for reverse tendering of the Polavaram hydro-electric power project based on a petition by the Navayuga Engineering Company. With regard to Polavaram irrigation project also, the state government opted for pre-closure of the contract agreement with Navayuga and is going for fresh bids.

In a related development, Krishna district vigilance and enforcement authorities are verifying the records of a part of Polavaram project works amidst allegations of irregularities based on directions from the Centre.

In a separate development, the minister said that they were going to take up a mega project to supply drinking water to every house in the state at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore and added that they would call for tenders in September. He said that they had asked the Centre to bear 50 per cent of the total cost of the project.