Hyderabad, Aug 16: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today urged the Centre to start the ambitious project from the state to help it in optimum utilisation of waters of Godavari and Krishna rivers. Welcoming Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's announcement, from the ramparts of red fort yesterday, on starting the works on the project by year-end, Naidu, a strong votary of networking of rivers, said he would request the Union government to commence the works from the state.

Asked where would his government like the works to commence from, Naidu told reporters here "we will soon work it out". The TDP supremo has been in the forefront of efforts to revive the idea of linking rivers from north to south, originally mooted by former union minister late K L Rao.

He had also made a presentation on the project before the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani during one of his visits to New Delhi.

Pointing out that the state's pending irrigation projects would require investments of the order of Rs 40,000 crore, Chief Minister said the linking of rivers would help in the optimum utilisation of river waters. The national network of rivers would also help tackle the problem of floods in the north and drought in several southern states.

"At present, a major chunk of river waters are going waste into the sea," Naidu added.

Bureau Report