India, Aug. 10 -- Former vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and founder-president of the Forum for Godavari waters utilisation, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, on Saturday, described the Polavaram-Banakacharla river linkage project proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government as "a white elephant", since its estimated cost outweighs its utility.

Reddy said he had written to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on August 6 to drop the proposal for the Polavaram-Banakacharla project that seeks to divert Godavari waters to the Krishna River and then to the Pennar basin and instead follow the "four-water concept" adopted by the Rajasthan government.

Reddy, son of former chief minister Dr Marri Channa Reddy, recalled that ...