Minister for water resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said on Friday that “Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has been giving top priority for Polavarm project and the works are going as per the guidelines of the Central Water Commission (CWC).”
Speaking to media persons here at the Chief Minister’s camp office, Mr Umamaheswara Rao said that “the Chief Minister decided to conduct virtual inspection of project works on every Monday and inspect the project site personally on the third Mon-day of every month to complete them as per schedule.”
The minister said that “the government has taken up the project works as per CWC guidelines and there was no deviation of works. He said the advice of engineering experts and professors of IITs will be taken into consideration for the design and construction of the project.”
The minister added that “the state government was successful in drawing 19.1 TMC feet Godavari water from Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme and 16.5 TMC feet water was used for Krishna delta and 2.5 TMC feet water diverted through Polavaram right main canal was used to protect the crops in upland areas of West Godavari district.”
Allaying the fears on coffer dam at the project site, the minister said that” it was aimed at diverting the flow of river and complete the works of earth or rock fill dam and spillway.”
Engineer-in-chief K. Venkateswara Rao said “the coffer dam will be constructed to a height of 41 metres.”
On the other hand MLA Akula Satyanarayana said that “the BJP will raise before the Polavaram Authority the issue of competence of the firm that bagged the contract for the construction of the Polavaram irrigation project.”
“The Central government has not only declared Polavaram as a national project but is also bearing the entire cost of construction. Hence, we have every right to question the competence of Transstroy India, which is constructing the major irrigation project,” Dr. Satyanarayana said while addressing the media here on Friday.
“The party has doubts about the capability of the company, though it has joined hands with L&T and other reputed companies,” he said.
Also Read: AP CM Visits Polavaram Project Site, Thanks PM Modi
BY M.DIVYA SRI
