VIJAYAWADA: The expert committee headed by the Member of Water Planning and Projects (CWC) will visit the Polavaram Irrigation Project site from June 15 to 18. Central Water Commission (CWC) Director (National Projects) Sanjay Kumar and CWC Deputy Director (National Projects) Nikhil Jeph will accompany the expert committee. This is the seventh visit of the expert committee to the Polavaram project site.
As part of the four-day visit, the expert committee will hold meetings with the Polavaram project officials on June 16 and 17. The last meeting of the committee was held virtually in September 2020. Ahead of the visit of the committee, the National Project Directorate (CWC) wrote a letter to the Engineer-in-Chief (Andhra Pradesh) requesting him to provide information pertaining to various aspects of the project to brief the committee members prior to their visit.
The information sought by the CWC includes the action taken report on the recommendations or observations made during the previous meeting, progress up to March 31, 2021, progress from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, progress in April and May, 2022 and further programme on half-yearly basis. The CWC has also sought status of various court cases, inter-state issues regarding submergence, designs, construction of embankments and others. Information related to the status of physical progress along with details of critical issues in timely completion of the project and the status of the DPR of the distribution network along with completion schedule has also been sought.
The expert committee includes Chief Engineer, Project Monitoring Organisation (CWC), CE, Designs (N&W) (CWC), CE, KGBO, CWC, Hyderabad (AP), CE, Project Preparation Organisation (CWC) (Convener of the Committee), Engineer-in-Chief, Polavaram Irrigation Project, Dowleswaram, East Godavari District (AP), member secretary, Polavaram Project Authority, and Director, Central Soil and Materials Research Station, New Delhi. AB Pandya, former chairman, CWC, DV Thareja, former member (D&R), CWC and DP Bhargava, former director (Technical), NHPC, Faridabad, are special invitees.