All efforts will be made to complete the Polavaram project in 2018 itself, Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.
Speaking to mediapersons after a two-hour long meeting with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi, the Union Minister said that a target had been originally set to complete the project by 2019, but efforts were being made to provide water by gravity by 2018.
Mr. Gadkari said he had spoken to different contractors of the project when the Chief Minister was away in South Korea and had told them clearly that work should continue without a break and that the project should be completed as planned.
The Union Minister said all obstacles for Land Acquisition and R&R would addressed to ensure that work was not hindered in anyway. The issues with the DPR of the project would also be taken care of, he added.
Mr. Gadkari said the Centre would give the contractors one month’s time to improve their performance. In case they fail to do so, the new contractors for which the State government has already called tenders would be asked to take over.
Mr. Naidu held discussions with Mr. Gadkari over ticklish issues related to the Polavaram project.
The most important one was the tenders called by the State government for Spillway and Spill Channel concrete works that are currently being executed by Transstroy. He was accompanied by State Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.
