‘Govt keen to make AP drought-free through Polavaram’

Eluru: State Water Resources Minister Dr Nimmala Ramanaidu said that Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is working sincerely to make Andhra Pradesh a drought-free state through the construction of Polavaram project.

Speaking to media at the Polavaram project site office on Tuesday, he said that the Chief Minister is determined to use Godavari waters and turn Uttarandhra and Rayalaseema into green areas through the Polavaram project. If their government had won in 2019, they would have completed the Polavaram project by 2020. The former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had turned the Polavaram project into a curse. In 2014, their government allocated a budget of Rs 72,000 crore for irrigation, but the previous government allocated a budget of only Rs 30,000 crore and more than half of it was spent to meet their corruption. Godavari water will be released from the Pattiseema lift scheme at 7.27 am on July 3 (Wednesday).

Godavari water was released from Pattiseema, Tadipudi, Purushothapatnam Stage 1, and Stage 2, Pushkara lift projects on Tuesday. Water was released (7000 cusecs) from Pattiseema, 875 cusecs from Tadipudi lift scheme, 875 cusecs from Tadipudi, 3500 cusecs from Purushothapatnam stage 1, 1000 cusecs from stage 2 and 1225 cusecs from Pushkara lift scheme.

Till the Polavaram project is completed, the Pattiseema lift irrigation scheme has been undertaken to ensure that there is no shortage of cultivation and drinking water in the Godavari and Krishna deltas in the state.

He said that an international team of experts is examining the diaphragm wall, upper and lower coffer dam and Gap 1 in the Polavaram project. He said that with the release of irrigation water through Pattiseema, the shortage of irrigation and drinking water problems in the Krishna Delta will be solved and the farmers will be able to sow the Kharif crop early.