K.L. Rao who had first mooted the linking of the Ganga: Uma

The State government will submit all the information pertaining to the Polavaram project, including relevant documents, to the Central government over the next one week starting July 16 (Monday), Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao has said.

“This is in tune with the advice of Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari,” he said while addressing the 116th birth anniversary celebrations of noted engineer Dr. K.L. Rao here on Sunday.Mr. Rao said the officials of the Central and State governments would try to sort out all the pending issues during the next seven days to ensure smooth progress of the construction work.

The Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation scheme would be completed by August 15 and the concrete works of the Polavaram project by February 2019, the Minister asserted.A check-dam would be built at Chodavaram downstream Prakasam barrage in one year, he added.The vision and expertise of Dr. K.L. Rao had helped the nation build several projects, which led to the green revolution, the Minister observed.

Interlinking of rivers

Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said it was Dr. K.L. Rao who had first mooted the linking of the Ganga and the Cauvery.It was this concept that inspired Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to do a similar thing back home. The outcome was the linking of the Godavari and the Krishna through the Pattiseema project, which was benefiting the farmers in the Krishna delta, he said.

Engineer-in-Chief M. Venkateswara Rao, ENC (administration) K. Srinivas, Krishna delta chief engineer R. Satish Kumar, and apex committee member Alla Gopalakrishna were among those present.