The Centre has in principle agreed to grant the advance fund to put thePolavaram project workon fast track. The has been lobbying for the release of advance grant of 10,000 crore for the past several months in order to complete the project as per the deadline in 2023.
The state government already submitted a detailed report on the issue to the Centre. Jal Shakti ministry secretary Pankaj Kumar, reviewed the project progress with the senior officials of Cwc and PPA in New Delhi.
Although the Centre repeatedly promised to fund the project cost, it had kept the granting the approval for RCE based on 2017-18 price level.
The state government contented that it was not possible to complete the project with 2013-14 price level as it was projected at just around Rs 29,027 crore.
However, CWC estimated the cost at Rs.55,656 crore at 2017-18 price level. Subsequently, finance ministry and Jal Shakti ministry appointed a Revised Cost Committee to study the proposals of Technical Adivsory Committee (TAC) of CWC keeping in view of the escalation of the cost by over 50%.