VIJAYAWADA: Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday night reassured the State government that the Centre will help it complete the project by the end of next year. But in the same breath, he made it clear that the State government’s request to change the main contractor Transstroy for the execution of a portion of the works will have to wait. Speaking to reporters after a three-and-a-half hour meeting with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Delhi, he said the main contractor could be given a month’s time to expedite the concrete works and if it failed, the government could consider inviting fresh tenders.
The meeting comes in the wake of the Centre’s recent directive to the State government to put the tender process initiated for the spill way and spill channel works on hold. It had done so fearing that change of contractor at this juncture would result in cost escalation. The Chief Minister, who has been racing against time and facing a barrage of criticism from the Opposition, rushed to Delhi on Wednesday to sort out the issue.
The members also to urge Gadkari to look into the demand of the contractor to reimburse cost overruns.
At the meeting, it was decided that the Centre would release `2,500 crore by the end of this month. Importantly, Gadkari said that he had asked the Chief Minister to submit a report on the revised expenditure for the relief and rehabilitation of people who are going to be displaced.
The Union Water Resorces Minister also said that a full time Chief Executive Officer will be appointed for monitoring the work.“I want an officer to be posted at the project site and not in the city,” Gadkari added.
The Chief Minister said over 1.90 lakh people are yet to be given compensation.
The Chief Minister added that despite the work of the project going ahead, concrete works are lagging behind.
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