The Polavaram multi-purpose project, which is considered as the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh, is likely to be completed only by 2022.
An indication to this effect was made by Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajendra Kumar Jain after emerging from a review meeting here on Thursday. The PPA team would visit the site on Friday.
Mr. Jain said work on the coffer dam was partially completed, and a target was set to complete it before floods hit that area. It was estimated that about 10,000 cusecs of flood would reach the coffer dam this year. The coffer dam, however, would not be affected, he added.
ADVERTISEMENT
The estimates committee had to examine the increase in project expenditure. The committee has asked the State government to submit a few more details. The Central government had already released ₹ 6,700 crore for the project, he said.
Audit exercise
Mr. Jain said the State government was yet to complete certain formalities with regard to submission of bills to the Centre, which initiated an audit into the expenditure incurred on the project in 2014. An audit relating to the expenditure of ₹1,300 crore on relief and rehabilitation (R&R) was still going on. The audit relating to the expenditure incurred by the State government on the project before it was declared a national one was also yet to be completed, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
To a question, Mr. Jain said he had no information on reverse tendering for the project. The PPA was in no way concerned with the tenders. The State government would take a call on it, he added.
The previous government announced that water would be released through gravity by December 2018 and the project would be completed December 2019.
The Environment Ministry recently extended the construction period by two years. In 2011, the Union government asked the A.P. government to stop construction.
In 2014, the NDA government declared Polavaram a national project and the ministry kept the ‘stop work order’ in abeyance to facilitate work.