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Visakhapatnam: Union minister for roads, Nitin Gadkari, has said politics in Andhra Pradesh delayed the prestigious Polavaram project that was sanctioned by him while he was minister for water resources.Addressing election meetings in Venkampeta as a part of his campaign for Araku Assembly candidate Kothapalli Geetha and Anakapalli LS candidate C.M. Ramesh in Vepagunta area on Thursday, Gadkari said the project cost of Polavaram was then estimated at Rs 60,000 crore.Gadkari said he visited the project site four times when Chandrababu Naidu was chief minister. It was the responsibility of the state government to complete the project, he stressed.“When the new government came in 2019, it initiated several inquiries and the end result was the project was delayed,’’ Gadkari said.He said originally three schemes were proposed when 1,300 tmc of water from Godavari was going into the sea as waste. The first scheme was to take water from Godavari to Krishna, Krishna river to Penna and Penna to Kaveri, and taking the tail end to Tamil Nadu.This could have solved the water problem of the entire South India, Gadkari said, blaming the previous governments for wrong policies that led to water disputes.He said as a corrective measure, the NDA government launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchay Yojana to focus on big and medium dams and water conservation measures that would bring socio-economic changes in the rural economy.Agriculture contributes 12 per cent to GDP, manufacturing 22-24 per cent and services 52 to 56 per cent. He said 90 per cent of the population lived in rural areas and later 30 per cent of the population migrated to bigger cities due to the wrong policies of the government that existed after the time of Independence, he said.“Now we are focusing on diversion of agriculture to energy and power sector that would save the foreign exchange in importing crude oil and enrich the rural youth,’’ Gadkari said.He said already trial runs were on to make bitumen from broken rice and bio-fuel and aviation fuel from sea molasses, bamboo, broken rice and corn. Very soon vehicles would run on ethanol.Speaking about his contributions to north Andhra as minister for roads, Gadkari said work on Visakhapatnam-Raipur express highway covering a distance on 595 kilometres worth Rs 35,000 crore was on and similarly the Rajamahendravaram-Vizianagaram green express highway covering a distance of 688km was nearing completion. This project costs Rs 22,000 crore.“These two roads would be game changer as new developmental activities would be initiated providing employment to thousands of people,’’ Gadkari said.
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