Chandrababu Naidu Releases White Paper On Polavaram

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu today held a press conference in the Secretariat and released a white paper on the controversial Polavaram project.

The Chief Minister had visited the Polavaram project last Monday.

Naidu said that as part of seven white papers promised by him, he had released the first white paper, on the Polavaram project. He said that the State needed irrigation projects a lot, and that in the upcoming Assembly session relevant issues would be discussed and opinions taken from the people.

The CM alleged that the previous government had completely neglected the Polavaram project and also misused it, and that as a result the State had suffered irreparable losses. He also alleged that due to the carelessness of the previous government not a single irrigation project had been completed.

"During my tenure in 2014-2019, I personally supervised the project to bring it back on track, and 70% of the project was completed," he claimed.

Giving the details of the project, he said that the Godavari river was the only river in south India where water was available. "About 3,000 TMCs of water go into the sea. This water has to be utilised to make AP a drought-free State. 194 TMC of water can be stored and up to 320 TMC of water can be utilised. Irrigation of 7.2 lakh acres and consolidation of 23.50 lakh acres of ayacut; drinking water for a population of 28.5 lakh; 960 MW of electricity generation; water tourism; and plenty of water for industries will be possible," he said.

"Polavaram has been the dream of the people since 1941 after the Dhavaleswaram project built by Cotton Dora. The project is to divert the river with a flow of 50 lakh cusecs. It is the largest project in terms of construction, with huge gates at a height of 20 m and a width of 16 m, and right and left canals with a length of 390 km. This was a Guinness record. Concrete works that have not been carried out in any project are being taken up in Polavaram. Apart from getting clearances for the designs, we completed 72% of the works at a cost of Rs 11,762 crore in our five years from 2014, and reviewed the progress 104 times with 31 field visits," the CM said.