VIJAYAWADA: The State government has accorded approval for the deviations in the work of Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation Scheme (PLIS) due to design variations, resulting in savings of Rs 6.681 crore at agreement rates and other savings of Rs 44.203 crore with the adoption of reformulated SOR as per GST guidelines.
The revised contract value is Rs 1576.158 core including tender premium against the earlier contract value of Rs 1,627.04 core. A Government Order to this effect was issued on Monday.
It was in 2016 that the then government accorded administrative sanction for an amount of Rs 1,638 crore for lifting flood water at the rate of 3,500 cubic feet per second from river Godavari from the left bank near Purushothapatnam and release the same back into the main canal for irrigating Polavaram Left Canal ayacut up to 57.88 km in the first stage. In the second stage, it will fill the Yeleru reservoir by a lift, for providing water for the domestic and industrial needs of Vizag city.
However, when the new government came, the project was reviewed and on December 5, 2019, the government accorded revised administrative sanction for an amount of Rs 1,931.455 crore for the project.
On December 24, 2019, the Engineer-in-Chief of Polavaram Project wrote a letter in which he explained that project works were entrusted with Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd on January 30, 2017, with tender premium of 4.55 per cent for Rs 1551.22 crore for completion within nine months under EPC mode of contract. The project was completed except certain works which are proposed for deletion.
During the tendering process, certain items like pump house, delivery cistern, pressure main & manifolds, diversion roads, surge protection, etc., were kept under a variation clause. The ENC has further stated that considering the above items, the deviation proposals were submitted to the Joint Committee (SLSC & IBM Committee). It discussed the proposal in detail and recommended for according approval for deviations in the Purushothapatnam Lift Irrigation Scheme due to design variations, resulting in savings of Rs 6.681 core at agreement rates.
On account of the adoption of reformulated SOR removing subsumed taxes as per GST guideline, the committee finalised the total saving as Rs 44.203 crore, out of which, Rs 31.743 crore in the saving in respect of the above six items, where the design variations occurred and Rs 12.46 crore is the saving in respect of remaining items of the work.
The revised contract value of the work after considering saving due to design variations and adoption of reformulated SOR as per GST guidelines works out to Rs 1,576.158 crore. Thus, as there is a net saving, the present deviation proposals will not affect the revised estimate already sanctioned by the government.