New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tel-angana, Karnataka, Maharas-htra and Chhattisgarh to file an affidavit within four weeks stating their willingness to abide by the 1980 Justice Bac-hawat Godavari River Water Tribunal Award on inter-state sharing of water, so that it can decide the validity of Andhra Pradesh's decision to construct the Polavaram project.

In September 2016, the apex court had admitted separate applications moved by Odisha, Karnataka and Maharashtra, challenging the Polavaram project being constructed by Andhra Pradesh, which the Centre has declared as a "national project".

The project has been opposed on the ground that it would deplete water share from the Godavari and also submerge several villages in the aggrieved states.

On Thursday when the matter came up for hearing, a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, said besides the chief secretaries of these states, the secretary of the Union water resources ministry should file an affida-vit that all parties were bound by the Bachawat award.

Once the affidavits were filed, the bench said it would examine whether the Pola-varam project, also known as Indrasagar dam, was in conformity with the 1980 Bac-hawat award.

Justice Lokur also said the states were also free to discuss the problem. The bench made the suggestion after senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for Odisha, brought to the court's notice a letter addressed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on November 28 last year to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposing the construction of the project until the matter was resolved by the apex court.

The project proposes to irrigate 3,14,718 hectares in Andra Pradesh, besides generating 960MW of power.

Odisha had challenged the project in the apex court stating that vast areas in bordering Malkangiri would be submerged if the project came up.