SC asks Center to convene a meeting of Polavaram project stakeholder states

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Center to take the initiative to convene a meeting of the stakeholder states on the Polavaram multi-purpose project.

“The Ministry of Jal Shakti and the Ministry of Environment need to play a leading role. The meeting should be held at an appropriately high level. The Chief Minister can meet to resolve the issues. The meetings should be held in a month and the report should be filed before the Supreme Court, “The bench headed by SK Kaul said in its order.

The court has fixed the matter for hearing on December 7.

Odisha has expressed concern about this project. It is feared that the construction of the dam by neighboring Andhra Pradesh and the spillway will result in submergence of considerable amount of its area including protected tribal areas. It is feared that proper environmental assessment and study was not done on the backwater boundary in Sabari and Sileru parts of Odisha. The state has further said that the Polavaram project on the Godavari river is in violation of the order of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal.

In June 2019, the Union Environment Ministry had given a two-year extension and allowed construction works related to the Polavaram Multipurpose Project.

The Center had stressed that the project was “important for the people of Andhra Pradesh as it would irrigate nearly three lakh hectares of land, generate hydropower with an installed capacity of 960 MW and provide drinking water to 540 villages, especially in Visakhapatnam. , East Godavari and West Godavari and Krishna districts”.

In 2011, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government asked Andhra Pradesh to stop construction work on the project. However, in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government declared Polavaram a national project.

The Polavaram project envisages the construction of an earth-cum-rock fill dam on the Godavari. The maximum height of the dam will be 48 metres.