As the dust of the general elections has settled down, the multipurpose Indira Sagar Project has found a silver lining in the Narendra Modi-Chandrababu team. Both the leaders have rekindled the hopes over the fate of the project during their election speeches in the Seemandhra region by promising to realise the dream of the region within a timeline.
Even as Narendra Modi and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu are all set to take over as the Prime Minister and Chief Minister in the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh respectively in the next few days, certain factors hindering the project’s progress have come to the fore.
No tangible progressThe ambitious project, billed as a boon for the Coastal Andhra region, was initiated by former Chief Minister late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in 2005 as part of his election promise. It has been caught in a web of controversies fuelled by regional conflicts and environmental concerns since then. Barring construction of the Right and the Left Main Canals, the progress has seen no tangible progress in the last nine years. The main dam construction remains a non-starter for various reasons. In all, the government has spent Rs. 4,000 crore on the project so for.
The Modi-Babu team is expected to help it overcome the hurdles caused by the reported delay in the issuing of clearances by different Central agencies. So far, the project has got site clearance, environmental clearance and Papi Hills wildlife sanctuary clearance in 2005, R&R clearance in 2007 and CWC (Central Water Commission) clearance in 2009.
Revision of project costIt is due to receive an investment clearance from the Planning Commission enabling revision of the project cost up to Rs. 16,000 crore from the initial projected cost of Rs.10,000 crore. After according the environmental clearance, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests reportedly insisted that public hearings also be conducted in the submergence areas in Odisha and Chhattisgarh for granting another clearance to construct flood banks in those areas. The proposal hit a roadblock as the two States were reportedly not willing to hold public hearings, according to sources in the Irrigation Department.
In the pipelineThe project involves construction of a reservoir across the Godavari river with a storage capacity of 75.2 tmcfts, Left and Right Main Canals to irrigate 23.1 lakh acres in East and West Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts, transfer of 80tmcfts of water to the Krishna river at Prakasam Barrage and generation of 960MW of hydel power to meet the industrial needs in the region.
