The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Tender process above board: Ponnala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Tender process above board: Ponnala

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC.7. The State Government informed the Assembly on Monday that tenders were invited from reputed "quality control and assurance" consultants to ensure quality work in irrigation projects.

In a statement tabled in the House on irrigation projects, the Major Irrigation Minister, P. Lakshmaiah, said the Government had decided to ensure quality work in view the past experience of certain projects like Veligodu, Maddileru, Kandaleru "where the quality of work was poor." To achieve this goal, it had decided to go in for third-party quality control.

Options under study

Listing various options being pursued to fund the projects, he said it was decided to go in for irrigation bonds, request the Centre to enhance the loan assistance under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) from Rs. 250 crores a year to Rs. 600 crores, besides approaching banks/international organisations. An amount of Rs. 3,916 crores was provided in the 2004-05 budget for the projects.

The Minister said that to mitigate hardship and spread the green revolution, the need of the hour was to take up irrigation on a large scale and complete the projects in the shortest time. Outlining the Government's plan to complete the ongoing and new projects with available water and by diverting flood water from the Godavari, he said 30 projects were identified at an estimated cost of Rs. 46,000 crores to provide irrigation to 65 lakh acres, drinking water to 1.2 crore people and generate 2,700 MW for lift schemes.

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