Hyderabad: The Centre on Thursday made it clear that it is not possible to accord National Status to Kaleshwaram project. Answering a question raised by TRS member in the Lok Sabha B. Vinod Kumar, minister for water resources Nitin Gadkari said that the Centre has taken a policy decision not to accord national status to any projects hereafter. But the Centre will sanction funds for national projects.
In the absence of national status, the state government has to bear total costs for the construction of the project. Kaleshwaram is being constructed at a cost of over Rs 80,000 crore and the state government is feeling the financial pinch on account of the huge cost. Mr Gadkari stated that as per the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014, national status was promised for the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh and the Centre will abide by it. He said that Polavaram will be the last project to get national status.
Mr Vinod protested over Mr Gadkari’s remark and demanded national status for either Kaleshwaram or Palamur-Rangareddy lift irrigation project. “TS was formed as per AP Re-organisation Act. When AP gets National status for Polavaram project, TS also deserves the same status for one of the projects being built on either Godavari or Krishna,” Mr Vinod said.
