The Government of Telangana is making arrangements to float a corporation for implementation of one of its flagship programmes – drinking water grid – by the month-end.
The decision to float a corporation was taken based on the recommendation of a consultancy, IMaCS, which was given the task to suggest whether a board or a corporation would be more suitable to attract investments from overseas for the giant project estimated to cost over Rs. 26,000 crore. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has already expressed his resolve to complete the project at any cost before the next elections to the Assembly.
Official sources stated on Friday that the decision whether the corporation would be headed by a technocrat or a politician (elected representative) would be taken by the Chief Minister. “The Chief Minister is firm on launching the project officially by unveiling a pylon in Nalgonda district in the next two weeks and the process is also apace to call the tenders for at least four sub-grids of the project by the Sankranti festival,” the senior officer said.
On the other hand, the government was also exploring the possibilities of attracting investments into the project and several foreign agencies, including the Korean Water Grid and the Canadian Pension Fund, had already expressed interest with the former already visiting the State and taking up a field visit in the areas where survey work was in progress. The government was also planning to approach the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for funding to the project.
Detailed project reports“However, the agencies are asking for detailed project reports (DPRs) on the sub-grids so that they could study cost-benefit ratio to take a decision on funding their implementation,” the officer said adding that survey work on six sub-grids was likely to be completed in the next 10 days. They would be in position to take up the tender process for at least four sub-grids as the Chief Minister had suggested changes in two of the six sub-grids.
The changes suggested by the Chief Minister were also likely to bring down the number of sub-grids to 24 from 26, the sources stated.
