Hyderabad, April 13: The much-awaited Polavaram project is unlikely to take off in the near future despite the Supreme Court’s green signal for its construction yesterday. The reason: the state government has no money. The Centre had already made it clear that it would fund the project only after inter-state disputes were resolved.
The state government has recently identified 43 priority projects for completion under Jalayagnam scheme over the next two years. These projects will require about Rs 25,000 crore for completion creating new ayacut of 42 lakh acres and stabilise another 15 lakh acres. “As we are awaiting the national project status for Polavaram and Pranahita-Chevella projects, both these projects were not included among the priority projects. Further, both projects are very costly and can be completed only from the assistance from the Central government,” said an irrigation official.
Sources said that the officials have opted to complete the 43 priority projects instead of Polavaram. “While the Polavaram project alone requires Rs 17,000 crore and will irrigate only 4.36 lakh acres, all the 43 projects together can be completed at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore to provide irrigation facilities to 42 lakh acres. Even about Rs 7,000 crore of the total Rs 25,000 crore will be funded by the Centre under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP),” said another official.
Meanwhile, the Central government is learnt to have informed the state government that it will not be able to accord National Project status to Polavaram project and provide funds till all the disputes were resolved.
The Polavaram project is conceived as a multipurpose project providing irrigation facility to 4.36 lakh hectares, water supply to towns and villages en route, and generating hydel power with an installed capacity of 960 MW. However, the Orissa government had moved the apex court against granting National Project status.
It stated that the project would submerge vast tracts of lands in Orissa, a huge chunk of forest land and also displace a large number of people. But the Supreme Court on Monday rejected Orissa government’s plea to stay the construction of the project.
–Agencies