VIJAYAWADA: Even as the state water resources department is preparing the ground for tendering the proposed lift irrigation project at Polavaram, the officials are taking steps to ensure that the project doesn’t get entangled in legal issues as the Union Ministry of Water Resources is said to have made it clear that the project can be taken up only after due technical appraisal.
The tender documents for design investigation and construction of the proposed lift irrigation project, estimated to cost Rs 767 crore, have been sent for judicial preview last week, and the bidding will be opened after it gets the clearance. The government, in April, accorded administrative approval for the lift scheme designed to meet the drinking water needs of uplands and drought-prone villages of West Godavari and Krishna districts particularly during non-monsoon season between January and April due to falling water table.
The state officials noted that “the only option” to address the issue is to construct a project to lift water from the dead storage of Polavaram Irrigation Project. The plan is to lift water from +32 metres level (EL) near the head regulator of PIP and drop it into right side connectivities so that villages en route could be supplied with water. As per the proposal, water will be lifted in a single stage from PIP reservoir and will be delivered to a subsidiary reservoir between the head regulator and e-saddle dam.
When the officials presented the plan to establish a lift scheme and widen the twin tunnels to the Union ministry in recent meetings, the ministry officials were said to have questioned as to how the state could go about constructing new projects. Although the state officials argued that the projects would not have any impact on other states as only surplus water, that too just before going into the sea as AP is the last state the river traverses through before meeting the Bay of Bengal would be drawn, the Centre is learnt to have cautioned the state officials.
“We were told to get necessary appraisal done for statutory clearances. We are keeping in mind NGT’s orders, which said prior clearances were required, on Purushottapatnam and Pattiseema lift schemes. So, steps are being taken to see that the project doesn’t face any hurdles and get delayed,” an official explained.