It appears Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has decided to defy the NDA government at the centre by dropping Transstroy, the main contractor of the Polavaram project.
Notwithstanding the refusal of his request by the Centre despite repeated representations, Naidu decided to take away the major works awarded to Transstroy, owned by his own party MP from Narsaraopet constituency Rayapati Sambasiva Rao. The Cabinet on Wednesday evening gave a nod to his proposal.
Works on spillway and spill channel of the Polavaram project worth Rs 1,000 crore would now be given directly to sub-contractors and they would be directly supervised by the Chief Minister’s Office.
The additional burden on the state exchequer on account of change of contractor and granting of works to sub-contractors would be around Rs 300 crore.
“The state will write to the Centre to reimburse this additional amount. If the Centre does not agree for it, the state government itself would bear the burden,” official sources said.
As of now, only 50 per cent of the works are completed and it is doubtful whether the remaining 50 per cent would be completed within a year, since the spillway construction is more challenging task, compared to the earth work done so far.
So far, the government has spent Rs 12,465 crore on the project and was yet to get Rs 3,000.50 crore from the Centre.
