Polavaram’s progress: CM Chandrababu Naidu to meet Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to chalk out a way forward

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is set to call on Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the way forward for the Polavaram project. As the tenders called for spillway and spill channel works were put on hold by the Centre citing procedural lapses, it is learnt that the Chief Minister is going to clarify the state government’s stand on changing the contractor for these works and express the state’s willingness to bear additional expenditure if any that could be incurred in the process.

Sources said the tenders were called for works worth `1,395 crore as the Chief Minister was not happy at the pace of works being executed by the main contractor Transstroy. “Now the Chief Minister has clarified that the contractor could form a consortium with others to execute the works. If the Centre agrees, the State could bear additional expenditure, over and above the estimated cost, incurred by the consortium,” a senior official said.

The CM, who visited the project site on Monday, spoke to Gadkari over phone on Tuesday and updated him on the progress of the ongoing works. Naidu will also meet Gadkari on Wednesday and has even shifted the venue of the TDP Parliamentary Party meeting from Amaravati to Delhi for this reason. Naidu’s talks with Gadkari will be followed by the latter’s visit to the project site on December 22. The Centre’s missive halting the tender process has irked the State government.  

Naidu had expressed dissatisfaction in the Assembly asserting that he was ready to handover responsibility of completing the project on time to the Centre.  That triggered criticism by the Opposition in the state prompting Gadkari to hold a meeting with officials concerned from the State and Centre.

Project details to go online
In the wake of demands by the opposition parties to release a White Paper on the Polavaram project, the Chief Minister directed the officials to upload all details of the project online. Principal Secretary told TNIE that an exclusive website on the project will be launched within a week.

PM must convene CMs’ meet: Naidu
With the Odisha government writing a series of letters to the State and Centre as well as filing a petition in the Supreme Court against the Polavaram project, Chief Minister Naidu on Wednesday felt that it would be better for the Prime Minister to call a meeting with the Chief Ministers of AP, Odisha and Chhattisgarh to give clarity on the national project.