Completion of Polavaram by July, 2027

Vijayawada: The state water resources department along with stakeholder agencies of the central government, is racing against time to complete the multi-purpose Polavaram irrigation project before the Godavari Pushkaralu in July 2027.

This is as per the recent directions from Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Naidu has taken it as a prestigious issue to expedite the execution of the project even though its scheduled completion date is by the end of December, 2027. He wants the project to be completed six months ahead of schedule.

The Chief Minister has been holding regular review meetings to speed up the execution of the works and approaching the central government for speedy release of funds. Officials are preparing the drawings and designs of various components and seeking clearances from the central water commission.

The project authority involved international experts for guidance. Several central government agencies have been roped in to provide guidance vis-à-vis execution of several key components of the project.

Water officials say the project would help bring in a new command area of 7.2 lakh acres and stabilise the existing command area spread over in 13.5 lakh acres under the Sir Arthur cotton barrage and the Prakasam barrage. The 7.2 lakh acres are covered through the Left Main Canal spread over the erstwhile districts of East Godavari and Visakhapatnam, covering four lakh acres; and the Left Main Canal spread over erstwhile West Godavari and Krishna districts to an extent of 3.2 lakh acres.

Though the works on RMC are almost complete, works on LMC are still in progress.

Officials say that once construction of the Polavaram main dam is completed in a phased manner with its initial height at 41.11 metres at the final stage of 45.72 metres at full reservoir level, nearly 124.2 tmc-ft and 194.6 tmc-ft respectively of water can be stored.

However, the water, after completion of the dam, will fill up in a phased manner, after checking the stability of the dam, any leakage of water and other technical issues.

Water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu recently visited the Polavaram project, reviewed the progress of works and said, “We would complete the project before commencement of the Godavari Pushkaralu.”

A senior water official said, “Given the rate of progress of works at the Polavaram project, we would complete all major works by July, 2027. Some 80 per cent of the head work has been completed so far.”

As per the latest schedule, Diaphragm Wall works have been completed to an extent of 50,858 sq-m against a total quantity of 65,352 sq-m, showing completion of 78 per cent works. The target is to complete the works by Feb, 2026.

Similarly, the ECRF Dam Gap-1 works, covering the embankment from +25m to +38.32m, are to be completed by March, 2026. The ECRF Dam Gap-II embankment works would be completed by July, 2027, though their completion is targeted for December 2027.

As for land acquisition, out of the 1,00,099 acres targeted, acquisition of 91,127 acres is completed and the remaining land would be acquired by March, 2026.

On resettlement and rehabilitation, 38,060 Project Displaced Families have been included; and, of these, 14,385 families have been shifted while 23,675 PDFs are to be shifted by March, 2027. Housing is provided to 15,439 PDFs and 18,921 PDFs would get this by March 2027.