'Willing to go to the site myself': Andhra CM Naidu urges officials to speed up Polavaram project

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday has warned officials against delaying the Polavaram project, saying that he is willing to stay at the project site for seven days to supervise the project himself if necessary.

The Andhra Pradesh CM also told officials and contractors that they could directly approach him for assistance.

Times of India quoted Naidu saying, “Take all possible measures to meet the targets set for every week without fail. This project has to be completed as per schedule.”

During the virtual inspection of the project from the Interim Government Complex at Velagapudi, Naidu mentioned that he would ensure that there would not be any difficulty in sourcing the raw material and dispatching it to the project site, by talking to steel and cement companies.

Expressing his disappointment over targets not being met at the spillway works, he was quoted as saying  “Only 50% of the target was met. In the first 12 days, you could complete only 21.47 lakh cubic metres against the target of 44.63 lakh cubic metres. You people need to step up the pace.”

Against the target of 5.25 lakh cubic meters the officials told TOI that they have completed 4.75 lakh cubic metres of work, while the contractor completed 12.78 lakh cubic metres of work in the spill channel, against the target of 29.30 lakh cubic metres.

Earlier it was reported that the Centre had pegged the project cost at Rs 40,200 crore.

"It is no big issue. The Centre has promised to extend 100% funding to the project. Revision of estimates is a regular process and we will get the Centre's approval for the latest cost estimates also," water resources minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao told TOI.
Naidu, had earlier inaugurated the concrete work at the Polavaram dam site on January 7, and promised that it would be completed before the 2019 elections.