Gadkari’s planned visit to Polavaram turns curious

Amaravati: Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari is likely to visit Polavaram project for the second time on December 22 to review the progress of the project with the state government officials. State Water Resource Department officials said they have no official communication yet on which day the minister would visit the project.

The proposed visit of the Central Minister has gained significance in the backdrop his comments that the Union government would not be a silent spectator if the project works were not done properly and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s statement in the Assembly that if the Centre wants, we will stop the process and hand over the project to it.

AP Water Resources Minister D Uma Maheshwar Rao and state government officials met Gadkari last on Tuesday and discussed various issues related to the project in the wake of the controversy between the state and Union governments on building coffer dam across the River Godavari and inviting tenders for selecting new contractor to entrust works from block 1 to 30 of Spillway and spill channel. However, the Union Minister sent a committee of the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) to study the works at dam site.

The committee expressed doubts over the necessity of the coffer dam with a level of 42.5 metres. The Union government is of the view that as per the current plan, the coffer dam is not part of the Earth Cum Rock Fill (ECRF) dam as shown in the layout and would be of no use after the ECRF reaches the level of coffer dam.

“If coffer dam could be avoided, the resources to be used for constructing Coffer dam could be combined with the resources of the ECRF dam to get constructed up to 42.5 metres in one season and it would be also save significant cost,” the Union Water Resources Ministry communicated this in a letter to State government recently.

On other hand, the project contractor, Transstroy, is opposing the decision of the state government in inviting new tenders and made complaint to the Centre. Gadkari also took this seriously as he had already advised the state government in the past to withdraw the decision on new tenders and extend financial help to the Transstroy to enable the contractor to speed up works, which was ignored by the state government.

The state government invited e-procurement tender notice on November 16. On other hand the contractor also demands the government to revise the present rates. Against this backdrop, a three-men committee led by engineer-in-chief M Venkateswara Rao held a meeting in Vijayawada on Sunday, in which Polavaram Authority secretary R K Gupta and advisor Bhargava participated to discuss the demands of contractor following the suggestion of Union Minister Gadkari.

Venkateswara Rao told The Hans India that it was the preliminary discussion and no decision was taken yet. “The committee will visit Polavaram on Monday along with the Chief Minister. R K Gupta enquired with us about the present status of the project and other issues, including contractor’s demands. We will have another meeting after Gupta visits Polavaram project,” he said.

The ENC said that new tenders issue would be decided on the outcome of discussion between Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Nitin Gadkari. They have already discussed this issue once and they would be discussing it again, he said.