Chandrababu’s Polavaram Loot & Credit Chori

Chandrababu Naidu is trying to turn Polavaram’s unfinished story into an event-management spectacle. The Polavaram Earth-Cum-Rock-Fill Dam is still incomplete. Water is not flowing from the Polavaram reservoir into the Left Main Canal as originally designed. Instead, Godavari water is being lifted through the Purushothapatnam Lift Scheme and released into a canal whose construction began two decades ago under Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Yet Chandrababu is now staging a “Jalaharathi” and attempting to project this as his Polavaram achievement.

The bigger question is not merely whose water is flowing through the canal. It is also who built the canal, who damaged Polavaram, and who benefited from the contracts? The record tells a very different story.

YSR Built the Foundation; Chandrababu is Claiming the Credit

Polavaram received real momentum only after Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy became Chief Minister. Under Jalayagnam, works began in 2004–05. The Left and Right Main Canals were taken up rapidly, massive land acquisition was pursued and crucial environmental, forest, rehabilitation and technical clearances were secured. Around 65–70% of the Left Main Canal works were completed during YSR’s tenure, while about 90% of the Right Main Canal works were completed during the YSR government and the government that followed. By March 2023, on the Left Main Canal alone, earthwork had been completed over 172.15 km, lining over 131.98 km, and 181 of 451 structures had been completed.

So what exactly is Chandrababu claiming today?

He is pumping water into a canal whose foundations, land acquisition and bulk construction long pre-date the present government—and presenting it as a new achievement. That is credit chori.

Rs. 81.63 Cr Balance work becomes Rs. 796.65 Crore

Even more serious is the story behind Packages 5 and 5A of the Polavaram Left Main Canal. By 2024, after earlier contractors had executed substantial portions, the value of the remaining works was around Rs. 81.63 crore. Then the numbers exploded.

In September 2024, the estimate was revised to Rs. 352.60 crore. RVR Projects, belonging to Rayala Raghu, quoted Rs. 307.41 crore and secured the contract. Then, in June 2026, the estimate was pushed up again, from Rs. 352.60 crore to Rs. 796.65 crore. That is a Rs. 444.05 crore escalation in only 20 months.

Engineering experts cited in the material questioned why such a massive increase was required and how the same contractor could continue when an increase beyond the permissible threshold would ordinarily require fresh tendering. Earlier too, balance works had been handed through nomination to firms linked to politically connected persons.

This is why questions over Polavaram contracts cannot be brushed aside as political rhetoric. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the 2019 election campaign, accused Chandrababu of turning Polavaram into an “ATM.”

The Real Polavaram Dam is still incomplete

The present publicity hides a basic engineering fact. Polavaram’s 2,454-metre Earth-Cum-Rock-Fill Dam must be completed and the reservoir impounded before project water can flow by gravity through the connecting structures into the Right and Left Main Canals. That stage has not yet been reached. The water now being displayed in the Left Main Canal is being lifted through Purushothapatnam pumps. Purushothapatnam water flowing into the Polavaram canal does not mean Polavaram has been completed. One is an interim lift arrangement. The other is the completion and operation of a full multipurpose national project. Chandrababu is deliberately blurring that distinction.

Diaphragm wall disaster began with Chandrababu’s Construction Sequence

The biggest technical setback to Polavaram also traces back to the 2014–19 period. Under the approved construction sequence, the spillway and spill channel should first divert the Godavari, after which the cofferdams and main-dam works should proceed. Instead, during Chandrababu’s tenure, the spillway, spill channel and diaphragm-wall works were taken up simultaneously. The Upper Cofferdam was left with gaps. Floodwater subsequently passed through the unfinished system, creating a massive scour in the ECRF dam area. The diaphragm wall was eventually damaged at four locations over about 485 metres. The international expert committee that inspected the project in 2024 also flagged technical shortcomings, including the construction sequence and problems connected with the Upper Cofferdam.

The earlier diaphragm wall had cost around Rs. 399.77 crore. The consequence was not merely physical damage, it delayed the main dam and forced Andhra Pradesh into additional repair and reconstruction expenditure.

YS Jagan took up the repairs and Critical works

When Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy took office in 2019, his government inherited these complex technical problems. Despite successive Godavari floods and the Covid pandemic, several critical works were advanced:

• spillway completed and 48 radial gates installed;
• approach channel, spill channel and pilot channel substantially completed;
• two Upper Cofferdam gaps closed;
• Gap-3 concrete works completed;
• Godavari flow diverted through the spillway on 11 June 2021;
• Lower Cofferdam taken forward;
• key canal connectivity structures advanced;
• 960 MW hydropower works pushed ahead.

Reverse tendering of major works, including the power component, was also claimed to have saved the State Rs. 784 crore.

From 45.72 Metres to 41.15 Metres: Who will answer?

The most serious question today is bigger than a Jalaharathi. Polavaram was conceived with a 45.72-metre Full Reservoir Level and about 194.6 TMC storage. The present Central funding framework, however, is tied initially to works and rehabilitation required for impoundment up to 41.15 metres, with storage of roughly 119.4 TMC. That difference has enormous implications for irrigation, R&R, Krishna diversion, Godavari delta stabilisation, Uttarandhra water supply and the overall multipurpose character of Polavaram.

Instead of answering how and when Polavaram will reach its full 45.72-metre potential, Chandrababu is celebrating water pumped into an old canal. YSR gave Polavaram life. YS Jagan repaired inherited damage and completed critical works. Chandrababu’s legacy is contract escalation, technical blunders, repeated publicity deadlines, and now credit theft over a canal he did not build.

Before another Jalaharathi, Andhra Pradesh deserves answers:

• Where is the completed main dam?
• Where is full 45.72-metre Polavaram?
• Why did Left Canal estimates explode to Rs. 796.65 crore
• And why is Purushothapatnam water being sold to the people as Chandrababu’s Polavaram?