CHENNAI: Union water resources minister Uma Bharti on Monday handed over a cheque for Rs 1,981 crore -- issued by Nabard for Polavaram irrigation project -- to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Bharti said the government had declared it as a national project and all future expenditure on it would be borne by the Centre, said an official statement quoting the minister.

 

Polavaram is a multi-purpose project with an assessed cultural command area of 2.91 lakh hectares and power generation potential of 960 MW. It also has a provision for supply of 23.44 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) water as drinking water supply to Vishakhapatnam city and other areas, besides industrial water supply to Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant. An inter basin transfer of 80 TMC water annually to Krishna River Basin has also been envisaged.

 

After declaration of it as a national project in 2014, Rs 950 crore had been to the Polavaram Project Authority. To meet the balance expected current year's liability of Rs 2981.54 crore as reported by the state government, arrangement of funds from Nabard had been made. Out of above balance expected current year's liability of Rs 2981.54 crore, an amount of Rs 1,981.54 crore was released on Monday, the statement added.