VIJAYAWADA: The State government has granted administrative approval for a payment of Rs 93.93 crore to Navayuga Engineering Company Limited (NECL) for its work on the Polavaram irrigation project, according to an official statement issued by the Water Resources Department.
The payment includes, Rs 57.56 crore as per the terms of the agreement and an additional Rs 36.37 crore to be disbursed with the final bill. NECL was tasked with executing the balance head works of the project under a 2018 agreement, which was mutually pre-closed as per Clause 89.3 of the General Conditions of Contract (GCC).
The company submitted a consolidated claim, prompting the government to form an expert committee in May 2022 to review the claims. The committee, comprising Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) C Narayana Reddy, Chief Engineer (PIP) B Sudhakara Babu, and Advisor (Designs) M Giridhara Reddy, was tasked with examining the claims in line with agreement conditions.
Based on the panel’s recommendations submitted on September 30, 2022, the government approved the payments after careful consideration. The Chief Engineer of the project has been directed to take further action to facilitate the disbursal.