Water Resources Department engineers and officers heaved a sigh of relief when Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari and Central Water Commission (CWC) Chairman Masood Ahmed said all doubts regarding the revised estimates of the Polavaram irrigation project had been cleared.
Cost escalation
The Andhra Pradesh team, led by Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Shashi Bhushan Kumar, and Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao, had spent extended time in New Delhi to explain the engineers of the Water Resources Department and the CWC the “rationale” behind the cost escalation or the “revised cost estimate” of the project.
When Mr. Gadkari inspected the Polavaram site on July 12, he had given the State officials eight days time to provide all the information needed.
The estimated cost of the project at the 2010-11 price level was ₹16,010 crore. But the revised estimate at the 2013-14 price level went up to ₹58,319.06 crore.
The Union Minister, during his visit to the project site, had said the State government should “justify” the escalation in cost.
Land acquisition, additional compensation, and cost of Rehabilitation and Resettlement as per the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 had pushed up the cost of the project.
Mr. Shashi Bhushan Kumar said, “A team of officers has been camping in New Delhi for the last two weeks. The Engineer-in-Chief has been camping in the Capital for over eight days. I have been staying put in New Delhi for over five days with the required information.”
Mr. Gadkari wanted to know how much additional land had been earmarked for land acquisition in the new estimate and why. He also wanted to know about the additional number of project displaced families (PDFs), and the additional cost of alteration in the sections of the Left and Right Polavaram Main Canals, Mr. Shashi Bhushan Kumar said on Friday.
“There are no doubts as far as the concepts of revision are concerned, but some additional data has been sought, and we have promised to provide the same in whatever format required by Monday,” Mr. Shashi Bhushan Kumar said.
Amount due
About the ₹2,400 crore that was due to the State government from the Centre, Mr. Kumar said the amount was part of the revised estimate and would, therefore, be released only after the new estimate was approved.
