The inundation of Bhadrachalam town due to recent floods in the Godavari has thrust the Polavaram project into the limelight again. The issue has led to a war of words between the two Telugu States with Telangana Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar claiming that the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to increase the height of the project by three metres led to the floods and posed a grave threat to areas upstream in Telangana and A.P. Minister Ambati Rambabu asserting that the project had been cleared by the Central Water Commission (CWC) and was being constructed by the Central government with the A.P. government only implementing it.
The Polavaram project has been a bone of contention between the two States since the formation of Telangana. The then A.P. government succeeded in getting seven mandals of old Khammam district merged with A.P. with the Centre enacting the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill in 2014, because these mandals were in the submergence area of the project and the government could take relief and rehabilitation measures when necessary. Telangana alleged that the project works were expedited after it was declared a national project in line with the Act and that serious concerns of the riparian States were ignored.
The Telangana government has insisted on taking up new studies relating to the impact of the backwaters as well as the environmental impact the project would have on areas upstream. The government’s demand is not inappropriate. The environmental assessment of the Central government in 2005 had considered 36 lakh cusecs as the probable maximum flood. This was then changed to 50 lakh cusecs, and the CWC asked the A.P. government to design spillways accordingly.
