Hyderabad: Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari has finally decided not to change the existing contractors and sub-contractors for Polavaram multi-purpose project as requested by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
In a three-hour marathon meeting with contractors, sub-contractors, Polavaram project authorities and Central water resources ministry officials in Delhi on Wednesday, Mr Gadkari told them that the Centre was not ready to change contractors.
However, in order to speed up the project works, he decided to make payments to sub-contractors directly by opening escrow accounts in banks.
He also did not take any decision on approving the Polavaram rroject revised estimates from the existing Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 54,000 crore and decided to hold another meeting with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley soon.
Hitherto, the government had been making payments to original project contractor Transst, which should in turn makes payments to sub-contractors like L&T, Triveni and others. All these sub-contractor firms have been alleging that Transstroy was not making payments for them. The only solace that emerged for the AP government in the meeting was the decision that the government would make payments to sub-contractors.
