The Centre has released Rs 250 crores to Polavaram Irrigation Project for setting up of special purpose vehicle (SPV). The financial assistance came from the Ministry of Finance which said, “In terms of Section 90 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014, Union government has decided to support Andhra Pradesh for setting up of SPV for the Polavaram Irrigation Project and release Rs 250 crore in this financial year.”

Talking to media, Central Water Commission Chairman Ashwin Pandya said the SPV referred giving resources for the Polavarm Project Authority for executing the project such as financial resources and other administrative support. He said, “This amount released by the Centre will help the Polavaram Project’s funding and other expenditures involved in execution of this project as the Polavarm Project Authority was constituted previously.

Until now we had minimal funds for pay but this allocation will help the project.” He said this amount came from under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) of the Ministry of Water Resources which sanctioned projects and gave its consent for funding for the implementation of river projects in the country.

Polavaram Irrigation Project in Andhra Pradesh is the national project for which the cost estimated is about Rs 16,000 crore but it is likely to escalate further, according to official sources. This multipurpose project will irrigate 2.91 lakh hectares of land, will generate 960 MW of electricity and will supply 23.4 tmc ft of drinking water to Visakhapatnam in addition to supplying 80 tmc ft of water to the Krishna river basin every year.  The project in the Godavari basin is located about 34 km from Kovvur-Rajamundray road and 42 km from upstream of Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage.