* Industrial and municipal water requirements including those of Nagpur
city by the year 2050 are proposed to be served utilising 253 Mm3
* At the price-level of 2007-08, the cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 8,294.26 crore
* Chief Minister urges Union Minister Uma Bharti to declare Lower Painganga as national project
By Kartik Lokhande
Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Thursday, met Union Water Resources
Minister Uma Bharti and urged her to expedite various irrigation
projects in Maharashtra. Fadnavis also requested Uma Bharti to expedite
the Wainganga-Nalganga river linking project in Vidarbha, and taking up
Lower Painganga in the region as national project.
Already, National
Water Development Agency (NWDA) has taken up Wainganga-Nalganga river
linking project for preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR).
Wainganga (Gosikhurd)-Nalganga (Purna Tapi) Intra State Link Project is
proposed by Maharashtra Government, and it envisages diversion of 2,721
Mm3 of water from Gosikhurd project across river Wainganga to Western
Vidarbha. Of this, 2,207 Mm3 is earmarked for irrigation, 253 Mm3 is
planned to be utilised for municipal and industrial purposes in the
command areas and remaining 261 Mm3 will be lost in transmission.
As
per the details with NWDA, the link canal of Wainganga-Nalganga project
takes off from the right flank of Gosikhurd dam and traverses for a
length of 478.2 km through Bhandara, Nagpur, Wardha, Amaravati, Akola,
and Buldana districts. The link envisages to bring 4,13,750 hectares of
culturable command area under irrigation. Besides, it is also proposed
to cater to the future municipal and industrial water requirements in
the command area and the city of Nagpur. About 22 lakh human population
and industrial water requirements by 2050 are proposed to be served
utilising 253 Mm3. At the price-level of 2007-08, the cost of the
project was estimated to be Rs 8,294.26 crore.
Apart from this
project, Fadnavis urged Uma Bharti to take up Lower Painganga irrigation
project as ‘national project’ like Gosikhurd. As per the official
release, the Union Minister gave a ‘positive response’ to this. The
project will extend irrigation benefits to 1,41,000 hectares of area in
Yavatmal district, and 58,000 hectares in Chandrapur district. In the
same meeting, a ‘mega recharge’ project for Tapi basin also was
discussed.
Uma Bharti assured Chief Minister that funds would be
released to irrigation projects in Vidarbha under Accelerated Irrigation
Benefit Programme (AIBP). Several projects including Gosikhurd, Lower
Wardha, Bembla, Bawanthadi irrigation projects in Vidarbha region will
get financial assistance.
Maharashtra Water Resources Minister
Girish Mahajan, Water Supply Minister Babanrao Lonikar, Minister of
State (Water Resources) Vijay Shivtare, Chief Secretary Swadhin
Kshatriya, Union Secretary (Water Resources) Amarjit Singh, Director
General of NWDA Masood Hussain, Water Resources Secretary (Gujarat) S J
Desai, Principal Secretary of Water Resources (Maharashtra) Malini
Shankar, Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Manisha Mhaiskar,
Municipal Commissioner (Mumbai) Sitaram Kunte, Principal Secretary
(Finance) Sudhir Kumar Shrivastav, Secretary (Water Supply) Rajesh
Kumar, Joint Secretary (Water Resources) V M Kulkarni, Deputy Secretary
Sanjay Kulkarni and others were present prominently in the meeting.
(08-01-2015)
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