Andhra Pradesh eyes completion of 8 minor irrigation projects in 2 years

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government is aiming to complete about eight small or medium irrigation projects at an estimated expenditure of Rs 15,000 crore over the next two years, a senior official said today.

"The state government is now resolved to complete all the pending projects including Handri-Neeva, Galeru-Nagari, Tadipudi - all these small or medium ones, which would come to about Rs 15,000 crore all put together," Parakala Prabhakar, Advisor (Communications) to the state government, told PTI.

"In the next one year or so, if we really concentrate and pump in the required Rs 15,000 crore, we shall be able to complete all these projects. We are not talking about the big ones (projects)," he said.

The completion of the pending small or medium projects by mobilising the Rs 15,000 crore would help in a big way in making the state drought-proof, he said.

"The challenge before the Andhra Pradesh government is how to mobilise the Rs 15,000 crore, so that in next one or one-and-half year, we shall be able to complete this," Prabhakar added.

The government is hoping to mobilise about Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 9,000 crore through the sale of rare wood red sanders (which grows mainly in the Chittoor and Kadapa districts of the state) and mineral barites in the next one to two years, he said.

"This year we had budgeted only about Rs 5,000 crore or so, we were able to pool in another Rs 4,000 crore into the irrigation sector, because, we have taken this up as a priority," he said.

Bringing more areas under cultivation would lead to a rise in income levels and a consequent jump in collection of commercial taxes and other tax revenues, the Advisor said.

Replying to a query, Prabhakar said there are no clear plans yet on approaching any external agencies for funding and that "internal mobilisation is the primary thing".

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government would like to pursue with the Centre for early completion of the Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project by 2018, he said.

The project has been accorded national status by the Centre as per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act.