Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government would complete 36 major irrigation projects at an estimated cost of Rs 35,555 crore by the end of 2028.
Water resources minister Nimmala Ramanaidu told the media here on Tuesday that the government has prepared an action plan to complete the execution of 36 major projects on a priority basis. He noted that in the last two years, the government had allotted `24,611 crore to the water resources department in the Budget, Out of this, `12,484 crore was meant for the projects in Rayalaseema region.
The minister released a two-years’ progress report of the water resources department and said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu made substantial Budget allocations to the department.
He said that 11 irrigation projects on a priority basis would be completed in the north Andhra region in the next two years. “We had also completed the Handri-Neeva project in two phases by allotting `3,870 crore in 100 days to transform the Rayalaseema region.”
Referring to the expenditure incurred for taking up several irrigation projects, the minister said that the TD government had spent `66,000 crore in 2014-19 in which `12,000 crore was spent for the Rayalaseema projects.
He noted that the previous YSRC government had spent `32,059 crore in 2019-24 while the alliance government had spent `24,611 crore in 2024-25. Out of this, an amount of `12,484 crore was spent in Rayalaseema alone.
The minister gave a presentation with regard to the progress of execution of several projects including the Polavaram, Veligonda, Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi, several north Andhra projects, the Chinthalapudi and the 1,026 lift irrigation schemes in the state.
He also highlighted the revival of water user unions, Jaladhara Harathi, dams safety works and a host of other works.
Earlier, the minister said the YSRC government adopted the ‘reverse tender’ policy affecting the irrigation sector badly. This caused a debt of `18,000 crore to the exchequer, he alleged.
He said the present government had announced an irrigation calendar for the first time in the country to execute irrigation projects in a time-bound manner.
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