Rs 1,100 cr just to design Pranahita-Chevella project

The Public Accounts Committee made a shocking discovery that a whopping Rs 1,100 crore was to be paid to consultants just to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Pranahita-Chevella project. Of this, Rs 600 crore had been paid even before work on the project had started.

The PAC, headed by Dr Nagam Janardhan Reddy, which reviewed the progress of the project and payments made, instructed officials not to release the further claim of Rs 500 crore.

Sources said that officials informed the PAC that the cost of the Detailed Project Report was arrived at 3 per cent of the total project cost of Rs 36,000 crore.

Shocked MLAs questioned officials as to how such large payments could be made for preparing the designs alone.

The project is meant to bring water from the Pranahita, a tributary of the Godavari in Adilabad district, to Chevella, 40 km from the city.

“How can you sanction Rs 1,100 crore merely for project design? Is it justified? What about canals and the actual project cost,” Dr Janardhan Reddy reportedly told officials. “What is the yardstick for payment for design cost? We have never heard of such huge payments for designs alone.”

Other PAC members joined him and grilled the officials for approving such exorbitant payments for preparing designs. Dr Janardhan Reddy said he would write to the Chief Minister regarding the exorbitant payments.

Taken aback at the onslaught from the legislators irrigation officials expressed their inability to provide more details and promised to get back to them later.

In the wake of complaints of irregularities in the construction of major irrigation projects, the PAC has decided to meet daily to review each and every project after the Assembly session begins on July 7.