Centre likely to release Rs. 2,000 cr. for Polavaram.

Andhra Pradesh Government is expecting the Centre to release about Rs. 2,000 crore for 2015-16 to meet the expenditure of the ongoing works on the multipurpose Polavaram project.

Official sources said the Union Finance Ministry was believed to have assured the Union Water Resources Ministry that the entire expenditure required for the current financial year would be provided.

After Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed his disappointment over the allocation of Rs. 100 crore for the project in the Union Budget, the Centre subsequently agreed to release Rs. 250 crore for setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for expediting the works.

Following a request from the Union Water Resources Ministry, the State government submitted a report estimating that about Rs. 2,000 crore would be spent on the project this year.

Once the Centre sanctions the funds to the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), the money would be released, the sources added.

The project which envisaged to irrigate 2.91 lakh hectares, besides generating 960 MW of electricity and providing 23 tmc ft of drinking water to Visakhapatnam City and the Vizag Steel Plant. While the total project cost was originally estimated to be Rs. 10,051 crore, it has been revised to Rs. 16,051 crore subsequently due to escalation. The Union government had cleared the constitution of the PPA last year for the execution of the project in accordance with the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.


THE HINDU