HYDERABAD: A governmental team comprising ministers and officials will visit Mumbai soon to sign an agreement with the Maharashtra government on the Pranahita-Chevella major lift irrigation project. As both chief ministers were busy with Assembly sessions the agreement could not be signed so far, government sources said. “We will proceed to Maharashtra to sign the papers soon,” major irrigation minister Peddi Sudarshan Reddy has said.The agreement will make things easier for Andhra Pradesh to get clearances from the central government, The Centre has accorded four of the eight clearances required for the project. According to sources, the state needs clearances from as many as 15 departments but could get clearances only from seven departments so far. Once all the clearances are obtained, the Centre may confer the national project status on Pranahita-Chevella.The state government had prevailed upon the Maharashtra government to constitute an inter-state board for the project. Though the state cabinet hailed chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in January this year for his efforts to convince his Maharashtra counterpart, nothing could be put in black and white so far.This was attributed to the budget session of the Assembly in both the states. Sources said Centre had already agreed to bear 57 per cent cost of the project. If the national project status is conferred, the Centre will bear 90 per cent of the cost.While Pranahita-Chevella is in Telangana, Polavaram, another irrigation project, is in Andhra region. It is also in an advanced stage of getting clearances and the state is trying to get the national project status for both projects simultaneously. If Polavaram gets the national project status first, it will trigger widespread protests in Telangana. That is the reason why the government is trying its best to see that both the projects are declared as national projects at one go.
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