VIJAYAWADA: With the high-powered committee on capital favouring decentralisation of governance, meaning that relocation of Secretariat to Visakhapatnam is almost certain, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed the Water Resources department to lay drinking water pipelines for providing uninterrupted water supply to the City of Destiny. He also took stock of the proposals for diverting surplus Godavari water to parched Rayalaseema districts in the next 50 days.
The Chief Minister also reviewed the Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi project. “Take all steps to lay drinking water pipeline in Visakhapatnam to ensure uninterrupted supply,” he directed. He also reviewed the plans to divert floodwater in Krishna basin to Rayalseema districts in the next 50 days.
The officials made a presentation on the proposals to strengthen the canal system in Rayalaseema districts. They informed him that around `23,000 crore was needed for widening the canals linked to the projects in Rayalaseema. They further explained the status of various projects and apprised him of the position of the Godavari surplus water maximum utilistion project through which water from Polavaram will be diverted to Banakacherla through a reservoir at Bollapalli. They explained that the project is expected to cost between `60,000 crore and `70,000 crore and that efforts were on to raise money for the same through a special purpose vehicle. They informed that a total of over `1.1 lakh crore was needed for taking up priority projects (besides Polavaram) and that they were in the process of tieing up with financial institutions for mobilisation of funds.
Regarding Polavaram, the CM ordered the officials to ensure availability of sufficient funds on time so that there was no interruption to the works.