YSRC Govt Misled Public On Veligonda Project: Ramanaidu

The minister said after inspecting the tunnel and feeder canal works that former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had dedicated the project to the nation claiming wrongly that it was complete.

Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu would perform bhumi puja for the feeder canal works that are still under execution, he said.

Ramanaidu walked along the feeder canal and reviewed the progress of lining and retaining wall works. He said the CM would review the project within a week. The bhumi puja would be performed for feeder canal lining works and construction of a 5.3-km retaining wall, taken up at a cost of ₹456 crore, he said.

The works, he said, are aimed at filling the Nallamala Sagar reservoir before the start of the irrigation season. During the five-year YSRC rule, only 745 metres of benching and 705 metres of lining were completed in Tunnel-2. The present government completed 6,579 metres of benching and 3,644 metres of lining within 18 months.

The minister said, “Some 504 metres of lining was completed in December and 312 metres in January, totalling 816 metres. The lining work done over the past five years was completed in about 50 days under the present government.”

Ramanaidu said once the approvals are received, work to remove the tunnel boring machine from Tunnel-2 would begin.

Referring to an expert committee’s observations, he said it had warned that even a flow of 10 cusecs through the feeder canal could breach embankments and inundate villages, but the previous government “failed to act.”

He said the present government has taken up feeder canal lining and retaining wall works at a cost of ₹456 crore and aims to complete them by June. “The project would be completed and dedicated to the nation only after compensation is paid to the displaced families,” he said.