Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has instructed the officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) to concentrate on the foolproof implementation of the Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) package for the thousands of families facing displacement by the Polavaram project.
He has also insisted that the officials should arrange for negotiations with their counterparts in Odisha to resolve the inter-State disputes over Neradi barrage and Jhanjhavati projects, while he wrote a letter to the Odisha Chief Minister for one-on-one deliberations.
At a review meeting on the irrigation projects on Wednesday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said while taking care of the R&R package of the Polavaram project, the construction should be carried out even during the rains so that the deadlines could be met.
Officials told the Chief Minister that the Vamsadhara - Nagavali river link would be completed by this year-end and Galeru Nagari-Handri Neeva link works would begin soon.
The average height of Polavaram spillway pillars was 28 metres during the TDP regime and it went up to 51 meters a year after the YSR Congress came to power. These works would be completed by September 15.
Canal works
The Chief Minister also ordered that the Polavaram left canal works should be expedited and there should be no compromise in complying with the quality standards.
The WRD officials told the Chief Minister that the Owk-2 tunnel construction would be completed by the end of October and a fresh allocation of ₹500 crore would facilitate the achievement of targets with regard to the projects in north Andhra districts.
Steps were taken to release water from the first tunnel of Poola Subbaiah Veligonda project in early December. The second tunnel works were going on at a brisk pace. The Phase-II Stage-2 works of the Vamsadhara project were poised to be completed by March 2021, officials informed the Chief Minister.
