Pulichintala project to be delayed by two years

GUNTUR: It will take another two years for the Pulichintala project to be completed.The project was originally scheduled to be completed by June 11, but due to various reasons the deadline could not be met.The foundation stone for the Rs 450 crore project, which has a storage capacity of 45 tmc, was laid by the then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on October 15, 2004.Due to the delay in completion, the project costs escalated to Rs 1,281 crore from Rs 450 crore. Though the state government announced that the project would be completed on a priority basis, it did not sanction adequate funds.If the same situation prevailed it might not be possible to complete the project in the next two years also, said an engineer at the project site. He said only 10,180 metric tonnes of steel was allotted as against required 12,000 metric tonnes. The engineers said it would take few more months for them to get the remaining steel.It is not be possible to rehabilitate the oustees of the six villages within a month.The government first made a budgetary allocation of Rs 175 crore for the project for 2011-12. But later it increased it to Rs 400 crore.Though a budgetary allocation of Rs 125 crore was made last year, only Rs 105 crore was sanctioned.