The Union Government’s decision to declare Indirasagar Polavaram as a project of national importance is expected to speed up implementation of the multi-purpose venture. But, many hurdles, including inter-State disputes, resolution of pending cases, land acquisition and submergence issues, have to be crossed before it becomes a reality.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s declared Thursday that it would be treated as a national project, soon after the Union Cabinet approved a draft Bill to carve out a separate Telangana State .
The long-pending irrigation-cum-hydel power generation project, which has gone through several changes over the past few decades, seeks to stabilise cultivation in at least four districts. National project status means it will have the Centre’s financial support and facilitation, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and the soon-to-be carved out Telangana and Seemandhra regions will be interested parties.
The inter-State project on the Godavari river was conceived as a part of recommendations of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award in 1980. While Andhra Pradesh, the then undivided Madhya Pradesh and Orissa (Odisha) executed an agreement in 1980 to enable clearance of Polavaram project to be undertaken by Andhra Pradesh, there were several inter-State concerns, including submergence of hundreds of villages.
The project, revised several times, has been estimated to cost Rs 16,010.45 crore as on 2010-11. To come up at Polavaram mandal of West Godavari district, the project seeks to provide irrigation to about nearly 3 lakh hectares in East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, West Godavari and Krishna districts. It is proposed to install hydel power generation capacity of 960 MW, apart from providing 24 TMC of drinking and industrial water supply to Vishakhapatnam township and steel plant, and diversion of 80 TMC waters to river Krishna.
The ultimate irrigation potential of the project is 4.368 lakh hectares and annual power generation will be 2,369.43 million units. In addition, 540 villages will also be provided with drinking water facilities in the command area.
The project will interconnect the Godavari and Krishna rivers. It envisages transfer of 80 TMC surplus waters of the Godavari Krishna River, which will be shared between Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra .