CWC Demands More Details From Odisha on Polavaram Floods

Vijayawada: The Central Water Commission has asked the Odisha government to come up with more technical details on what could be the maximum level of floods to the Godavari river at Polavaram and also on the quantum of backwaters of the Polavaram project.

Officials from AP, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana met in New Delhi under the aegis of the Central Water Commission on Wednesday. The meeting discussed fears expressed by Odisha vis-a-vis submergence of its land by Polavaram backwaters.

Odisha made a presentation on the subject. However, CWC was not convinced on several technical issues. It proposed further discussions within the department to clarify matters. Chhattisgarh expressed its intent to follow up on the issues raised by Odisha.

A water resources official said, “CWC raised some queries for which Odisha could not respond properly. Odisha also raised queries, leading to disagreement on several issues.”

Notably, it was in 1986 that AP received the maximum floods of 36 lakh cusecs vis-a-vis Polavaram. AP cited expert contentions that as high as 50 lakh cusecs of floods can occur only once in 10,000 years. On this basis, AP saw no reason for advance planning or modifications in the designs of the project to face such situations.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet is learnt to have given its approval for release of Rs 12,157 crore for the Polavaram project works. The central allocations were pending for a long time.

This is out of the Rs 30,436 crore the Centre had previously approved for release towards the dam’s head works, land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and for the works on the Right Main Canal of the Polavaram project. The remaining amount had already been released.

Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu visited Delhi several times and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers to press for release of the Polavaram project funds.