VIJAYAWADA: As the State government has almost finished the reverse tendering of Polavaram project and is awaiting the High Court’s order to take a call on award of the works, the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) has decided to have a meeting with the Water Resources department officials to take stock of the outcome of the fresh tender process. The meeting is scheduled to be held in Hyderabad on October 16.
While the scheduled meeting will not be an authority meeting, officials said that it was a formal meeting to review the status of the government’s decision, against which both the PPA and the Union Jal Shakti ministry advised.
The PPA, it is learnt, wants to know the state government’s stand on how it would proceed with the entrustment of works as the High Court, in an interim order, directed the government to not proceed with the entrustment of works to another agency till final orders are issued. Once the government informs their stand, the authority would apprise the Union ministry of the same.
Special Chief Secretary (Water Resources) Adityanath Das apprised Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Union Secretary UP Singh on the re-tendering/reverse tendering done. Das informed them that the State was able to get bids for much lower quotations than those awarded previously, and added that the quantum of savings would be around Rs 838 crore (headworks, connectivities and hydel power plant). Das said the department was awaiting the court orders to take a call on entrustment of works to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd. However, the PPA said that it was not informed anything officially.