Polavaram irrigation project stuck in a limbo, thanks to Jagan’s inefficiency, says A.P. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu

Polavaram irrigation project stuck in a limbo, thanks to Jagan’s inefficiency, says A.P. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. The former Chief Minister’s decisions such as abruptly changing the contractor against advice caused severe damage to the project that is the lifeline of Andhra Pradesh, says Chandrababu Naidu. Andhra Pradesh suffered more losses during the YSRCP tenure than due to bifurcation in 2014, he avers.

The ignorance and inefficiency of the former Chief Minister, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, in taking policy decisions and in abruptly changing the contractor of the multi-purpose Polavaram Irrigation Project (PIP) had resulted in causing severe damage to the project, considered Andhra Pradesh’s lifeline, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu asserted while releasing a White Paper on it, at the Secretariat at Velagapudi on June 28 (Friday).

Stating that Andhra Pradesh had suffered more losses during the YSRCP tenure than due to bifurcation of the combined State in 2014, Mr. Naidu said, “It will cost more than ₹12,157 crore to complete the remaining works under Phase-I of the project.”

Changing the project’s contractor at a critical stage, ignoring the advice of the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) and the Ministry of Jal Sakhti, delay in mobilisation of the required men and machinery by the new agency, and not realising the importance of plugging the two gaps in the cofferdam upstream resulted in severe damage to the diaphragm wall, Mr. Naidu explained.

The previous government had also failed to complete the Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) programme at certain villages likely to be affected due to completion of the upstream cofferdam, he said. There was little progress in works such as approach channel to spillway and approach channel to both the right and left head regulators, he added.

These resulted in causing severe damage to the diaphragm wall of the main dam and cut-off wall of the downstream cofferdam and partially completed downstream cofferdam, Mr. Naidu said.

“These led to deep scours in the foundation area of the main dam. Measures to be taken to overcome these bottlenecks also have not been finalised. As a result, it is now not possible to commence any work pertaining to the main dams (Gap-I and Gap-II),” the Chief Minister said.

He further said that the agency executing the main dam of the project had stopped works in June 2019 itself on the directions of Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy.