Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister P Anil Kumar on Saturday said that the government has saved public money amounting to Rs 58 crore in Polavaram reverse tendering process. He mentioned that the first reverse tendering process in the Polavaram project was over and there has been a difference of about 15 per cent less than the actual amount of the contract. He also said that Polavaram is almost Rs 55,000 crore work project.

Reverse tendering project

"With this single reverse tendering the government has got a profit of around Rs 58 crores. As every project will go into scrutiny I hope thousands of crores would be saved by the government. The first reverse tendering process has taken place in the Polavaram left tunnel which is of Rs 290 crore. We are happy to witness that the tender which has been floated for 4.77 per cent excess in 2018 has seen 15.6 per cent less after the reverse tendering with the same contractor and same company which bid in 2018," he said. 

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Speaking on the tenders passed in the project the Irrigation Minister said that the tenders for 65th package of Polavaram left connectivity works were confirmed and the Max Infra company has bid the tender at 15.6 per cent less cost.

"Almost every work is reverse tendered. Almost Rs 30 thousand crores of work were tendered in 2017-18 with 4.7 per cent excess rates, we are just reducing the excess rates and saving public money. However, in the last 4-5 months, no work has been done due to floods. Work resumes in November when flood reduces," he added.

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Andhra CM appeals to the Irrigation Department for reverse tendering

Earlier in June, with an emphasis to eliminate the irregularities that took place in the irrigation sector during the previous TDP regime, the newly appointed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, at a review meeting of the Irrigation Department on Thursday appealed to the irrigation officials to help the new government in cleaning up the mess by exposing the lapses and instances of tendering with excess rates.

On June 4, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister had also met the acting Chief Justice of the High Court, C Praveen Kumar requesting him to constitute a special judicial commission to bring about reforms in the tendering policy. He also asked for one high court judge to be allocated for the commission to ensure that all forms of corruptions have been curbed and to bring back public money into the exchequer.

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Polavaram Project

Polavaram Project is an under-construction multi-purpose National project on the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. It is designed to overcome the deficit of water in the country. The project is entirely funded by the Centre and is also known as National River-Linking Project. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to give top priority to the completion of the Polavaram project. Similarly, on the same river, the Kaleswaram project has been recently inaugurated which is expected to supply water to 70 percent of districts in Telangana for agriculture, drinking water, and industrial purposes. 

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(with ANI inputs)