Oct. 6: Irked at a series of objections including legal tangles coming in the way for execution of the Indira Sagar (Polavaram) project, the local MP, Mr Vundavalli Arunkumar, warned of an imminent food crisis and transformation of the Godavari and Krishna delta areas into dry areas. The MP said that farmers in the Godavari delta area were suffering from either floods or drought, forcing them to suffer crop damage during the kharif season under the influence of heavy rainfall and floods in the river while foregoing the second crop in the rabi season for want of adequate supply of water. He said that nearly 10 lakh acres ayacut were dependent upon Godavari water to raise crops for two seasons a year, and according to an estimate, farmers are suffering nearly Rs 6,000 crore loss in a year when they failed to raise foodgrains, especially paddy, in the Godavari delta. He said that during the recent spell of rainfall and floods in the Godavari river, nearly 3,700 tmc ft of water was drained into the sea from the Cotton barrage at Dowleswaram and added that if the construction of the Polavaram project was completed, it would help water to be stored in the reservoir and supplied for crops in the delta region. He said that eight lift irrigation projects like Devadula, Sripada, Dummugudem, and Srujala were being constructed upstream the river Godavari and works on four projects were almost completed; if these projects started lifting water from the river, there would be no water left by the time the river touched the Cotton barrage at Dowleswaram. He felt the need to call for tenders for taking up construction of the spillway by November end to fix the agency and start execution of works. The MP along with local MLA, Mr Routhu Surya Prakasa Rao, and the MLC, Mr Kandula Durgesh, inspected the project site at Polavaram in West Godavari on Wednesday.