Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said the State government would take up interlinking of rivers — named as Maha Sangamam— across the State in a time-bound manner to give water to 40.26 lakh acres in nine districts and also to store 196 tmcft.
Addressing media persons after inspecting spillway works at the Polavaram project site, Mr. Naidu said the State government got all technical sanctions for the Polavaram project and work was progressing at a brisk pace. Upstream and downstream work would be taken up after obtaining approval from the technical committee.
The Chief Minister said the State government had till date spent ₹16,000 crore on the project and sent a report to the Centre. Efforts were on to get funds released at the earliest.
The 89 medium irrigation projects taken by the government were in various stages of construction and would be completed soon. He reminded that this was his 22nd visit to the project site.
Progress report
Referring to the earth-cum-rockfill dam, he said 4.9 lakh cubic metres work had been completed till date. Likewise, 4.79 lakh cubic metres of concrete wall work had been completed. Construction of 42 gates weighing 4,000 tonnes was going on a war-footing.
The Chief Minister said as part of interlinking of rivers, a barrage would be constructed at Vaikuntapuram in Krishna district and a reservoir at Gollapalli.
Seeking to allay fears of evacuees on the relief and rehabilitation ((R&R) package, he said the government would pay compensation in accordance with the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.
Mr. Naidu recalled that 105 tmcft was given to Krishna delta through Pattiseema. Rayalaseema was given 140 tmcft to from Nagarjunasagar and this resulted in groundwater table in the arid region going up. In many other districts, water levels went up after soak-pits were dug.
Attack on Oppn.
He alleged that some elements were seeking to delaying Polavaram by putting up hurdles, but the government was committed to completing the project on time.
Launching a veiled attack on the Congress, Mr. Naidu said people who did nothing to facilitate merger of seven mandals from Telangana, were now undertaking padayatras.
Ministers D. Umamaheswara Rao, Pitani Satyanarayana, MPs Maganti Venkateswara Rao, Seethamahalakshmi, Irrigation Secretary Sasibhushan, and Collector K. Bhaskar were present.
