Zero Progress in Polavaram in Jagan’s First Year
by Sridhar Raavi, By Mirchi9
It looks like Polavaram Project is not a priority of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Government and the claims of finishing the project by December 2021 is a distant dream. For 2019-20, Polavaram was allocated Rs 5254 Crore but the Government only spent 1,311 Crore.
A majority of this 1,311 Crore is spent only towards the reimbursement of the old bills (of Chandrababu’s tenure) which means literally nothing has happened this year. This is the least expenditure in a year for the Project after the State Bifurcation. During Chandrababu’s regime, the then Government exceeded the budgetary allocation of Polavaram all the years.
Jagan Government wasted most of the time changing the contractor in the name of Reverse Tendering. While the old contractor did the work at a rapid pace, the new contractor seems to be clueless at least for now. Polavaram Multi-Purpose Irrigation Project comes with a total capacity of 194 TMC which will irrigate about Five Lakh Acres over Two Crops Every year.
The Project will also generate 960MW of Hydel Power which is the cheapest available power in the market right now. Hence the project is said to be very beneficial for the state and is treated as the ‘Life Line’.