VIJAYAWADA: In a positive sign, the Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) committee of the Union Ministry of Finance, examining the revised detailed project report (DPR) of Polavaram project, has decided to reverify all the particulars submitted by the AP government and recommend its approval to the Union cabinet. The process of recommendation is likely to take a week or two, officials said.
“The committee said it would reverify all the details the State has sent so far and recommend the revised DPR’s approval to the Union cabinet. It said today’s meeting was the last RCE committee meeting with the State. The committee is positive and if there are any further queries, it said it would reexamine the submitted documents,” Special Chief Secretary (Water Resources) Adityanath Das, who participated in the RCE meeting in New Delhi, told TNIE on Thursday. He presented before the committee the State’s plan to complete the Polavaram project execution within 2.5 years.
If the RCE committee recommends the same cost of Rs 55,548 crore approved by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) will be known only after the verification process. However, there are chances for the RCE to give approval for a lesser quantum, officials said.
Once the revised DPR gets Union cabinet’s approval, it will be referred to the Finance Ministry for the release of funds. The ministry will in turn release the funds through NABARD.
For the record, the State government had submitted the revised DPR to the Centre in August, 2017. After a series of meetings, the Centre had given its clearance in February this year for Rs 55,548 crore. Later, it was sent for RCE committee’s concurrence, which sought more details from the State as the cost drastically escalated from the previous approved cost of Rs 16,010 crore in 2010-11. The committee also sought an audit of the expenditure made on the project prior to March 31, 2014, before Polavaram being declared a national project. The State Water Resources department had furnished all the details -- especially that led to the increase in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) cost -- over a month ago, and requested the RCE committee to convene the meeting.