Polavaram Dam to Be Built at Height of 45.72 Metres: Ramannaidu

Vijayawada: Water Resources Minister Nimmala Ramanaidu has said the state government would construct Polavaram irrigation project’s dam at a height of 45.72 metres to ensure interlinking of rivers and for supply of water to the north Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

He was replying to the questions in the state legislative council from Duvvarapu Rama Rao, B Tirumala Naidu and Bhumireddy Ramgopal Reddy on Tuesday. They wanted to know whether there was any move by the Centre to revise the estimated cost of the project. They also sought details of the status of Polavaram’s Left Main Canal and its timeline for completion.

The minister alleged that the previous government indulged in a misinformation campaign that the height of the dam would be reduced.

Leader of Opposition in the council, Botsa Satyanarayana, asked again whether there was a proposal to reduce the height of the dam. The minister replied in negative and blamed the YSR Congress government for coming up with phase-1 at 41.15 metres and phase-2 at 45.72 metres during its 2014-19 term.

He said then CM Chandrababu Naidu had, on Feb. 18, 2019, got the revised cost of the project at `55,000 crore and got its approval from the technical advisory committee. He dared Botsa to publicise the letters written by the YSR Congress government to the Centre on the Polavaram project and advised the YSR Congress members not to raise the issue of dam height again.

“We will not reduce the height from 45.72 metres as proposed earlier,” the minister said.

He said, “Our government completed 72 per cent of the project while the previous government could register only two per cent progress in works as per records.

With regard to the R and R package, the minister said that out of 90,000 project-affected people, they could provide relief to 12,000 PFAs. In 2017 itself, we provided relief worth `830 crore and again a sum of `990 crore was given recently.

On Polavaram Left Main Canal, the minister said the government intended to complete it to an extent and supply water to the north Andhra region through the Pushkar and Purushothapatnam lift schemes. He said the government has started works worth `1,600 crore and sounded confident about completing the LMC by June 2025.