No need for fresh study on Polavaram: Centre

HYDERABAD: The Central government on Friday told the Supreme Court that there was no need to have a fresh study on the backwaters of Polavaram project on Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh since studies were already conducted in 2011 itself. Taking this submission into consideration, the Apex Court bench comprising Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta, posted the applications filed by the Odisha government and RELA, a voluntary organisation in Telangana, seeking stay of works of multipurpose Polavaram project, to November 15 for final hearing.

The Odisha government, in its petition, complained that the Polavaram project would submerge about 600 habitations in AP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana and also about 8,000 acres of forest land and 500 acres of wildlife sanctuary.

It challenged the Centre’s decision in giving national project status to Polavaram. It said that a study was to be conducted to the effect of the discharge of water at the probable maximum FRL of 140-150 ft with a design of 50 lakh cusecs. On earlier occasion, the counsel appearing for Odisha government submitted that the project works were taken up in violation of Bachawat tribunal order. There was a need to cancel the permissions granted to the project to ensure that there was no damage to Odisha.

According to it, the national project status to Polavaram was not correct. In fact, the project’s environment clearance was cancelled by the national environment appellate authority in 2007, but the AP High Court had stayed it as an interim measure. Even the Ministry of Environment and Forest had given a direction to stop the project works on February 8, 2011, but had later kept its own order in abeyance, it added.