Cracks on road to Polavaram, officials deny earthquake rumours

After cracks appeared on the road that leads to Polavaram project site giving way to earthquake rumours, the government officials on Saturday confirmed that it was not an earthquake.

In the view of the situation, the police halted the traffic on the road and engineering officials were rushed to the site to review the situation.

Clearing the air in this regard, Real Time Governance Centre - Andhra Pradesh Weather Forecasting and Early Warning Research Centre (RTG - AWARE) released a note that read, "There is no threat to the Polavaram project site, and no tremors have been recorded in the area. Cracks have been found on the road, but they are a result of changes in the atmosphere and decrease in the humidity in the mud."

The RTG officials are monitoring and reviewing the situation at Polavaram.

The Polavaram project is one of the most ambitious projects of the Andhra Pradesh government. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently said that the project has made his life fruitful and lauded the pace at which the project is been constructed. Polavaram is considered to be the lifeline of the state, as it will have the potential to fulfill the need of water in 13 districts of the state.

The project has been under consideration even before independence but it picked momentum only after 2015. 58 per cent of the project has been completed as of now.

The project has also become a matter of contention between the state and the Centre, with the state government blaming the central government for not providing adequate funds on time. The Centre, on the other hand, accused the state administration of not filing utility certificates causing the delay in channelising funds.