CM Revanth fires SLBC failure salvo on KCR; asks Harish not to talk crap

Stating that the government is committed to complete the long pending world’s biggest 40 km long SLBC Tunnel project works, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has announced that the government will provide compensation and address the grievances of the dwellers of the submerged Marlapadu, Keshya tanda and Nakkalagandi habitations located close to the SLBC project.

The project cost is estimated at Rs 4,600 crore and the government is ready to provide irrigation facilities to three lakh acres by lifting 30 TMC of water from Krishna River, the CM said

Addressing the media after launching Aerial Electromagnetic Survey for the SLBC tunnel works at Mannevari Palli in Nagarkurnool district on Monday, the Chief Minister came down heavily on the previous BRS government for not completing the prestigious SLBC tunnel works during its 10 year rule for political reasons.”

The SLBC project was sanctioned in 1983. The YS Rajasekhara Reddy government initiated the Tunnel-1 and Tunnel-2 works in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in 2004 at a cost of Rs 1,968 crore. However, after K Chandrashekar Rao became Chief Minister in 2014, the works stalled. “KCR and Harish intentionally put the project on hold and created hurdles to prevent water supply to Nalgonda through gravity,” the Chief Minister said, adding that such a massive tunnel project had not been undertaken anywhere else in the world.

CM Revanth Reddy noted that the project would have been completed at the cost of Rs 2000 crore had the KCR government completed the works. Today, the project cost was escalated to Rs 4,500 crore.

The CM took a broadside at KCR for not taking up even a single project on river Krishna and spent Rs 1.86 lakh crore on contractors in 10 years. Rs 1.05 lakh crore were spent alone on Kaleshwaram project, the Chief minister said that Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy was making all out efforts to complete the SLBC works by roping in the Army officials to dig the tunnels without any trouble in the future. It was unfortunate that eight workers died during the excavation of the tunnel and the government supported the bereaved family members.

People dethroned the BRS government for not completing the SLBC project and now we are taking up the works on a war footing, the CM said that people will also not forgive us if the project is not completed.

The Chief Minister also criticised the previous BRS government for compromising on the utilisation of Krishna water. “The then Irrigation minister T Harish Rao signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh to utilise only 299 tmc of water.

The Congress government took serious note of it and made strong arguments before the Tribunal to protect the state interests “. The CM warned Harish Rao to stop making cheap comments and creating nonsense on water issues.