Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has sent out a strong message that he would not tolerate any kind of laidback approach to the Polavaram project as construction companies have failed to reach their targets and excavation works of the spillway, spill channel and power house have been delayed. He conducted a virtual inspection of the project from command control centre here on Monday.
Officials informed the Chief Minister that 52,000-cbm soil was excavated per day last week, and from now on, 75,000 cbm would be excavated per day. They added that an additional 30 tippers were deployed on Monday and that 750 poclains will be moved to take up excavation works on a large-scale. It is learnt that following instructions given by the CM last week, 20 CCTV cameras were installed to monitor the progress of work round-the-clock.
“The spillway excavation should be completed by January next year, spill channel excavation by May next year, powerhouse excavation by March next year,” said the CM. Gates’ design and approval should be done by this year-end, he added. The officials informed Mr Naidu that 381.1 lakh cbm of spill channel, 25.80 lakh cbm of spillway and 58.46 lakh cbms for the power house were the balance quantities remaining, as on Monday.
Contractor Thriveni positioned 27 dumpers at the site and the remaining 49 are in transit. Seven EC 750 Volvos have been ordered and four of them would reach the site by this week. “Works at the left main canal of Polavaram project had gained pace,” the officials told Mr Naidu him, adding that 60 per cent of the works costing '965.694 crore had been completed and the canal would be completed by March 2018.
