Jagan seeks PM's help in Polavaram project

Amaravati: CHIEF Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has sought approval of the 2nd Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) Recommended by Central Water Commission (CWC), Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), and Revised Cost Committee (RCC) for Rs 55,656.87 crore as per 2017-18 Price Level with latest quantities for Polavaram Project.

The State Government was only an executing agency for the Centre and it is for the latter to complete it, he affirmed in the letter written a couple of days back and released to the media on Saturday.

Seeking PM Modi to "prevail on Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Jal Shakthi to accord investment clearance for 2nd Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) of the Polavaram Irrigation Project at the earliest so that the project which is programmed to be completed by December, 2021 meets all the cost of civil works, land acquisition and Relief and Rehabilitation costs without any hindrance".

Cautioning against delay, Jagan Mohan Reddy said it would only further increase the cost of the project and against the national interests.

He explained further that his Government had already incurred an expenditure of over Rs 12,520.91 crore after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh on the project, including LA and R&R for Project Displaced Families (PDF). Out of this around Rs 8,507.26 crore had been reimbursed and the balance Rs 4,013.65 crore was due.

Allowing Rs 2,234.77 crore reimbursement out of Rs 4,013.65 crore due through Long-Term Irrigation Fund (LTIF), the Ministry of Finance had made the release conditional to the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) accepting 2nd Revised Cost Estimate at 2013-14 Price Level while removing water supply component from irrigation component against the norms of CWC.

This was tantamount to accepting a totally unrealistic cost to complete a National Project declared under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 as per which the Centre would bear the entire cost. The Government had already spent Rs 17,656.82 crore on the project.

At this juncture, any unrealistic cost estimate would result in the project remaining incomplete. Even if civil works were completed, water could not be stored as LA and R&R cost for PDFs would remain unprovided for and that would render expenditure done so far unfruitful.

The major increase was due to LA and R&R cost as a result of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 enacted by the Centre.

Since the last approval of investment clearance was done at 2010-11 Price Level, the Polavaram Project Authority had asked the state Government to submit a realistic revised cost estimate for completion of the project.

Accordingly, Andhra Pradesh had submitted 2nd Revised Cost Estimate (RCE) for Rs 57,297.42 crore at 2017-18 Price Level) and the reasons for increasing the cost of the project were due to time over run and change in design which had been approved.