Rajahmundry: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Monday that Andhra Pradesh would become the granary for the country with the authorities gearing up to provide enough water to irrigate two crore acres of land under the smart water grid programme soon.
The Chief Minister inspected the execution of work on spillway and cofferdam of Polavaram irrigation project in West Godavari.
Later, he said that they were providing micro irrigation for about 32 lakh acre in the state at present and wished to enhance the acreage to one crore in addition to ensuring water supply to farmers for irrigation and to the people for drinking as also for industrial purposes.
Referring to the pace of execution of Polavaram project, Mr Naidu stated that so far Rs 15,013.19 crore had been spent on the project, Since the project was declared a national project, he added, Rs 9,870.32 crore has been spent of which Rs 6,728 crore was released by the Centre while Rs 3,157 crore was yet to be released.
He said that the construction of diaphragm wall was expected to be completed by end of December. the Chief Minister said that so far 96.5 per cent of the work had been completed while the remaining would be completed in time to achieve a record for its completion.
It was proposed to instal 45 gates but the Central Water Commission had permitted 27. Permission was expected to be given for remaining 18 shortly.
On relief and rehabilitation measures for the project-affected people, Mr Naidu said that it was proposed to acquire 1.66 lakh acres land but so far only 10,000 acres has been acquired. He, however, sounded confident to acquire the remaining area soon.
He said that nearly 1,01,679 project affected people would be rehabilitated. So far 3,928 have been rehabilitated with construction of rehabilitation colonies undertaken at a brisk pace.
The Chief Minister said that so far 1.50 lakh farmers from across the state had been brought to Polavaram to witness the work and claimed that they expressed happiness as it could benefit them. He said that the average rainfall in the state during the season had declined by about 45 per cent forcing them to release 73 tmc ft of Godavari water into Krishna delta through Pattiseema lift irrigation project to help the farmers in Krishna delta raise crops.
Assuring to provide modern rehabilitation colonies with all necessary amenities to the project-affected people, Mr Naidu said that the youth would be trained in various skills to help them find employment.
