Polavaram will take 3 years to complete: PPA executive officer

VIJAYAWADA: Polavaram project authority (PPA) chief executive officer Rajendrakumar Jain has said that the project would take at least another three years to be completed.
Jain held a review meeting with officials of water resources department here on Thursday. He is scheduled to visit the project site on Friday to check on the work and its progress.
Later, interacting with media persons, Jain said the project would be ready by 2022, given the present status of the progress. Before the project becomes operational, the government will have to complete the rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced people, he said.
The PPA has reviewed the progress of the rehabilitation and resettlement programme and the initiatives of the government on payment of compensation to families who were displaced owing to the project and the farmers who had given their land for the project.
Referring to the cofferdam, the PPA chief executive officer said that there was no threat to the dam even if there was 10,000 cusecs of flood water in this season.
He further said that the central government has so far paid Rs 6,700 crore to the state for the Polavaram project. While there are some more bills to be cleared by the Centre, he said, the state government has to complete a few formalities for the bills to be cleared by the Centre.
Water resources secretary Aditya Nath Das, engineer-in-chief M Venkateswara Rao, rehabilitation commissioner Rekha Rani, project chief engineer, Sridhar, PPA project designs committee chairman Pandya and others were present at the review meeting.