Hyderabad: With Union finance minister Arun Jaitley clearing an amount of Rs 16,110 crore for the Polavaram project to allow the Union water resources ministry to enter into a pact with Nabard for a soft loan, it may be difficult to complete the project by 2018.

This amount is much less than the revised cost of the project pegged at Rs 44,000 crore. The Union finance ministry has not considered the latest revised estimate for the project prepared by the AP government. This will also add to the delay. Polavaram was declared a national project as per the AP Reorganisation Act.

The Centre was to bear the entire cost and Union water resources minister Uma Bharathi had announced that it is the responsibility of the Centre to complete it with 100 per cent funding.

However, when it came to financing, her ministry proposed a soft loan from Nabard and sent requisite proposals to the finance ministry. Even in the Special Assistance Measures (SAM) for Andhra Pradesh announced by Mr Jaitley a few months ago, it was declared that only the revised estimate of Rs 16,110 crore as cleared by the Planning Commission in 2011 would be borne by the Centre.