Chandrababu Wants Another Rs 39000 Cr For Polavaram Project

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has sought an additional Rs 39000 crore to complete the Polavaram project. He sought these funds from the Central Government. A key meeting on the issue of changing the contractor of the project was held on Wednesday at New Delhi. The representatives of the Transtroy, the company that is currently on contract, L and T and other companies were present at the meeting.

Under the AP Bifurcation Act, Polavaram project is a national project and the Centre will fund its construction. The initial estimate of the project in 2004 was a mere Rs 10000 crore, but the current estimate is or the order of Rs 58000 crore.

While the TDP Government claims that the projct would be completed by 2018, only 27 per cent of the project has been completed. Also, the main contractor has stopped the work since October 5 as bills to a tune of Rs 250 crore remain unpaid. The workers were also reportedly not paid their salaries for the last four months.

Chandrababu has approached the Central Government with a request to replace the contractor. Naidu had taken up the issue personally with Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to Andhra earlier this month. Later he flew to Nagpur to meet Gadkari and discuss the issue. Gadkari has expressed reservations over changing the contractor midway as it could land the project in legal wrangles and further delay the completion. This would also lead to further cost escalation.

Opposition YSR Congress Party has criticised the ruling TDP and demanded a high-level inquiry into irregularities in the contract.

”Close on the heels of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s remarks that Polavaram should be built as a corruption-free project, Naidu rushed to Nagpur with a proposal to change the contractor, which shows the real intentions of the state government. Gadkari's comments are a clear indication that there are many irregularities in the project,’’ YSRCP MP YV Subba Reddy said.