The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to take the initiative to call a meeting of stakeholder States concerned with the Polavaram multi-purpose project.
"Pioneering role needs to be played by Jal Shakti Ministry and the Ministry of Environment. Meeting must be held at appropriate high level. Chief Ministers can meet to iron out the issues. Meetings must be held in one month and reports to be filed before the Supreme Court," a Bench led by S.K. Kaul noted in its order.
The court fixed the case for December 7.
Odisha has raised concerns about the project. It is apprehensive that the construction of the dam by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and the spillway would result in the submergence of considerable amount of its territory, including protected tribal areas. It fears that proper environmental assessment and studies were not conducted on the backwater extent in the Sabari and Sileru parts of Odisha. The State has further maintained that the Polavaram project on the Godavari river was in violation of the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal award.
In June 2019, the Union Environment Ministry had given two years' extension and allowed the construction works related to Polavaram Multipurpose project.
The Centre had stressed that the project was “important to the people of Andhra Pradesh as it would irrigate nearly three lakh hectares of land, generate hydel power with installed capacity of 960 MW and provide drinking water facilities to 540 en route villages, particularly in Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West Godavari and Krishna districts”.
In 2011, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had asked Andhra Pradesh to stop construction work on the project. However, in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government declared Polavaram a national project.
The Polavaram project envisages the construction of an earth-cum-rock fill dam across the Godavari. The maximum height of the dam would be 48 metres.
