Minister for Irrigation Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao has stated that high priority is being given to expedite the Polavaram project and right main canal works would be completed by June 2016 and water would be released by completing right main canal by July, 2017. He inspected the Polavaram left canal works along with irrigation officials at Krishnavaram village situated adjacent to the National Highway in East Godavari district on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters on the occasion, Mr. Uma Maheswara Rao said that the 1,518 km-long left main canal works were divided into eight packages to speed up the works. He mentioned that he would hold talks with the NH authorities with regard to the construction of a bridge to make sure that canal works would not be affected. He maintained that 8.5 tmc of water was lifted from the Pattiseema project in which 4.4 tmc of water was diverted to the Krishna delta and good yield from 40 to 50 bags were expected this season. He further said that 7 tmc of water which comes from the Polavaram left canal as well as from rivulets would be released into Eleru reservoir and another 3 tmc of water would be used to cater to the needs of Visakhapatnam.
“Though the availability of water is less in the Godavari, the water from Balimela and Sileru reservoirs was diverted to cater to the needs of 8.70 lakh acres in the Godavari delta,” the Minister clarified.
He further said that irrigation projects were taken up with Rs. 12,100 crore in the State and made it clear that the Polavaram project would be completed by 2018.
