Bhubaneswar, Aug. 13: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik today broke his silence on the controversial Polavaram issue and said the state had sought details of the project from Andhra Pradesh.

Naveen, whose statement came after Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Reddy expressed his willingness to initiate talks with the Odisha government on the issue, hinted that he was not in favour of talks at this stage.

“The matter is with the Supreme Court. Our water resources department has asked for project details from the Andhra Pradesh government,” Naveen told mediapersons today.

Odisha water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said: “We have urged the Supreme Court that the case be heard by a special tribunal.”

Mohapatra said the chief engineer of the Andhra Pradesh government wanted a discussion with Odisha officials on Polavaram, but he had not made clear what specific issues he wanted to discuss. “They must clarify which points they want to discuss,” he said.

On July 24, Naveen had urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop Andhra Pradesh from proceeding with the floating of tenders for the multi-purpose project on Godavari river, as a case was pending in the Supreme Court on the same.

In that letter to the Prime Minister, Naveen had also said that he had already written to government of India to withdraw the technical and final forest clearances of the project.

The chief minister said the project would adversely affect forestland and tribal habitations at Odisha’s Malkangiri district, where no public hearing on the issue had been conducted so far.

Andhra Pradesh officials are of the view that only eight villages in Odisha are likely to be submerged by the Indira Sagar Polavaram project as it can lift about 5,000 million cubic feet of water from the pondage of dam.