A national seminar on “Polavaram project - its conflicts, constraints and solutions” has made it clear that if Polavaram major irrigation project is not going to be taken up due to any reason the entire State will face acute shortage of food in the near future. It resolved that it was essential to keep away political, regional conflicts in resolving the Polavaram issue and enlighten youth, political leaders of Telangana who were opposing the construction of the dam.
The seminar was organised by Department of Engineering, University College of Engineering (Autonomous), Jawaharlal Technical University (JNTU), Kakinada and Prof. Allam Apparao, Vice-Chancellor was the chief guest of the national seminar.
Delivering the key-note address, Vundavalli Arun Kumar, MP, Rajahmundry, said that if the dam was not constructed, the Andhra was going to face severe shortage of food. He appealed to the people not to link the project to “politics and regional feelings”. Comparing Polavaram and Pranahita projects, Arun Kumar said that the first one was having many added advantages, including a 900-MW power generation and storage capacity of 300 TMC of water by constructing rock-fill dam at 53 feet height. He said that according to expert opinion it was not at all dangerous or any disadvantage if rock-fill dam was constructed as China had constructed such dams up to the height of 160 to 200 feet. U. Tataji, Vice-Chairman, Higher Education Council, Rowthu Suryaprakasha Rao, MLA, S. Siva Kumar, North Andhra Rakshna Vedika, S. Satyanarayana, Chief Engineer (Retired) Medium Irrigation, P. Udaya Bhaskar, Director, FUAR, JNTUK and others participated.
