VIJAYAWADA: AP Irrigation Minister today hailed the passage of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Amendment Bill which facilitates shifting of seven Polavaram project submerged villages from Khammam district in Telangana to the state.
Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that though the UPA government had promised to bring an ordinance to shift those villages to Andhra Pradesh as stated in the Bill and the NDA government passed the ordinance on May 29.
He told reporters here today that the Polavaram irrigation project which has been declared a national project, would be completed in three years jointly by centre and state governments.
The project would irrigate about 7 lakh acres and produce 960 MW power. About 80 tmc of water would be diverted to the Krishna delta, while 5 tmc of water would be provided to Odisha and Chhattisgarh would get 1.5 tmc of water.
The project would provide 23 tmc of water to Visakhapatnam city to meet its industrial and domestic water demand.
Tribals who would be displaced under the project would be rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore, he said.