Telangana government’s pet project, Water Grid has met with a road block at a very intial stage. The mega project is expected to cost the state about One Lakh Crores and the state has allocated 25000 Crore in the recent budget and it sought a minimum of 10000 Crore assistance from the Center.
However the Center has turned down the request as not feasible as the total size of the central assistance meant for drinking water schemes in all states is only Rs 9,000 crore. The Center even did not allow the relaxation of FRBM limit for Telangana which will allow them to bring loans from other sources.
Under FRBM norms, Telangana can borrow Rs 11,000 crore, while it wants to borrow Rs 17,774.30 crore for this fiscal. This burden of Water Grid will also fall on the government’s auction of lands in Hyderabad.
