The Polavaram Project was started, and is being constructed on a very prestigious note. At the time of bifurcation, the project even got a national status, and the Central Government had agreed to fund the project without any second thoughts.
When the estimation was done for the project in 2014, it came to around Rs. 30,719 Crores, and when the estimation was once again done in 2017, because the project was delayed, it came around Rs. 55,657 Crores. After adjusting the cost for inflation, the cost came around to Rs. 47,725 Crores. The Central Government had agreed to fund the state with the necessary amount, in order to complete the project.
After the project began, the Center was not releasing the funds so willingly, because of which a lot of pressure had to be put on the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, by the finance minister of state, of TDP. As a result, funds were released by the central government at one point or another. However, after the government in the state changed, things look a lot different for the project.
The YSRCP government is not putting a lot of pressure on the center to release funds. Despite CM Jagan discussing about releasing the funds every time he visits Delhi, there seems to be no action being taken in that regard. And now, the biggest bomb has fallen for the project. The Central Government has now said that it would fund the Polavaram Project based on the cost estimation done in 2014. This would mean that the state government would have to pay for the project from its pocket by a great margin.
Furthermore, the Center is saying that it has already funded Rs. 15,000 Crores for the project, and even with great pressure from the state, the situation looks like the Center may not give more than Rs.2,000 or 3,000 Crores. This would mean a lot of burden for the state government, and in the worst case scenario, the project may also be stopped due to insufficient funds.