VIJAYAWADA: The water resources department has submitted the details sought by the Vigilance department with regard to the alleged irregularities in Polavaram project observed by the expert committee. “We have submitted all the information sought. The vigilance will enquire and decide on what
The department is expected to take a call on when to begin reverse bidding for Polavaram irrigation component by the end of this week as it is losing time for identification of a new contractor. The State government is also awaiting a green signal from the Union Ministry of Water Resources, which had expressed concern over re-tendering and is examining the report submitted by the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), to go ahead with its plan.
The department is also likely to issue a fresh schedule for conducting reverse bidding as the earlier schedule was missed because of High Court proceedings.
Even though the department had issued notice inviting tenders on August 17 clubbing both irrigation component and 960-MW hydel power plant works, the bidding hasn’t begun as Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd (NECL) challenged the State’s decision to terminate its contract for power plant in the High Court. With the court giving interim suspension order in favour of NECL, the Water Resources department has been unable to initiate the bidding.
“The APGENCO filed a petition at the division bench to quash the interim order, and the court posted the matter to September 4. So, we expect to get a clarity in a couple of days. We are ready to launch the bidding process. We plan to resume works by November 1,” a senior official from the department noted.
The department had actually scheduled to begin bidding from August 22 for works worth Rs4,987.55 crore — Rs1,771.44 crore for irrigation works and Rs3,216.11 crore for hydel power plant. The department will now issue a fresh schedule for the tendering process, another official added.