Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi today acknowledged the escalation factor publicly for the first time. He put the revised figure, approximately Rs 10,000 crore, as the ``preliminary guesstimate'', which, he said, could go up further. He was talking to mediapersons here this morning on the last leg of his much publicised three-day tour of the Krishna valley.

Joshi admitted that the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) --the saffron alliance's only tangible endeavour in pro-Congress western Maharashtra -- was facing a serious fiscal crunch and a few contractors' bills were pending. However, Joshi said that all the bills would be settled in the near future.

The State would divert funds from institutions like MMRDA which, he said,was chaired by him, besides going for fresh issue of Rs 500 crore irrigation debentures.

The chief minister refuted the notion that a combined debenture issue for four irrigation development corporations in the State deprived MKVDC of additional funds.

The fresh issue would also be a combined issue for Krishna and Tapi valley development corporations, besides the Konkan and Vidarbha irrigation development corporations. Funds could also be diverted from other irrigation corporations, he said.

Joshi assured that the MKVDC would not face dearth of funds as the third issue of Krishna Valley bonds would be out within three months.

Joshi denied that contractors hired by the MKVDC to complete the projects were not being cooperative. ``We have also began paying them their arrears. Henceforth, payments to the contractors will be made on time,'' he said.