Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to follow the Irrigation Calendar for timely completion of projects and to add 11 more priority projects to it, which takes the total number to 36. The Finance Department should ensure adequate funding for land acquisition and civil works in order to facilitate execution of the projects as per the timelines that were fixed, he said.

Addressing a review meeting on irrigation projects at the Secretariat on Monday, Mr. Naidu said 88% of the civil component, 93% of land acquisition and 45% of Rehabilitation & Resettlement (R&R) works of the  Polavaram project have been completed and the balance works should be expedited. 

He noted that works on the left canal approach channel, head regulator and irrigation tunnel were under way and ordered that the Gap-1 and 2 works of the Earth-Cum-Rock Fill (ECRF) dam of the Polavaram project must be completed within the stipulated timeline and water supplied through the left canal via Purushothapatnam lift scheme from July.

Rayalaseema gets water

Officials told the Chief Minister that under Handri-Neeva Phase-1, 92% canal widening has been completed while 85% of the lining work of Kuppam–Punganur canals under Phase-2 has been completed. For the first time, 52 TMCFT of water has been diverted from the Malyala lift scheme to the Rayalaseema region, which resulted in filling of 432 tanks.

Mr. Naidu said once water from Polavaram reached Meghadrigedda through the left canal, it should be linked further to the Vamsadhara, the Nagavali and the Champavathi, and the cost of the Meghadrigedda–Champavathi link should be examined.

The Chief Minister directed that compensation to the displaced families under the Polavaram R&R package should be implemented strictly as per law and relocation completed by April 2027 without any dispute. He proposed the construction of an iconic bridge downstream of the Polavaram spillway, and directed the officials to ensure that Phase-1 of the Veligonda project was completed by July and to remove tunnel boring machine-related obstacles at the earliest.