'Centre allocatesonly ₹4,329 crore for Polavaram'.

The State government has spent ₹7,779.52 crore so far on Polavaram after it was declared a national project, but the Central government allocated only ₹4,329 crore to the State till December 2017, according to the figures revealed at the 50th weekly review on the project by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at Secretariat here on Monday.

Officials told the Chief Minister that a total of ₹4,375.73 crore would be required for completion of structures in the diversion channel -- the approach channel -- spillway, spill channel, pilot channel and radial gates. The State government has already spent ₹1,531.53 crore on these components and another ₹2,844.20 crore is needed for their completion. The total expenditure on the project so far, including the amount spent by the previous government, is ₹12,915 crore.

The Chief Minister complimented the officials and engineers for working without rest for the past three-and-a-half years.

Project status

Reviewing the status of the project, he said 53% of the entire project was completed till date. With regard to the status of the different components of the project, 91% of the right main canal that connected the Godavari River to the River Krishna was completed. The completion of the remaining components was left main canal 60%, head works (structures at dam site) 39%, and excavation for spillway and spill channel was 71%. The concrete work for the same structures was completed only 14%. The fabrication for the radial gates was completed 58%.

The 116-day water conservation movement -- ‘Jala Samrakshana Udyama Spoorthi’ -- would begin on February 12 and go on till June 7, the Chief Minister announced at the Neeru-Pragathi review meeting held earlier.

Godavari-Pennar project

Consultants presented a ₹4,617 crore proposal for the first phase of the Godavari-Pennar River Linkage project. As part of this River Linkage scheme, the consultants proposed the pumping of 15,370 cusecs by Pattiseema and Chinthalapudi Lift Irrigation Schemes to Krishna Delta. While 7,000 cusecs could be utilised for Krishna Delta, the remaining 7,000 cusecs could be pumped up to the Nagarjuna Sagar Right Main Canal. The consultants told the Chief Minister that the acquisition of just 1,778 acres would be required in the first phase.

THE HINDU