Chhattisgarh writes to Odisha for speeding up Indrawati structure work

Chhattisgarh government has demanded that the Orissa State Government should speed up the work for the early completion of Hydraulic Control Structure on Indrwati-Jhora canal. State's water resources minister Brijmohan Agrawal has written a letter to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He underlined that to resolve the Indrawati-Jhora canal water sharing dispute between both the states it was incumbent on their part to complete the structure early.

The structure was necessitated following Indrawati changing its course in Jora Nallah and flowing back to Orissa instead of entering into Chhattisgarh territory. Since Jora Nallah is on the downstream, the river course gets diverted in the canal connected to it instead of flowing ahead. The structure would stop the flow to the Nallah and was supposed to be constructed by June 2014.

Agrawal said in a meeting organised by the Central Water Commission at New Delhi on 31 May 2002, it was decided to build two structures on Indrawati river and Jhora Canal for sharing the water between both the two States. The construction work of the Hydraulic Control Structure as per the proposed drawing design was to be executed by the Orissa Government. The state-run Orissa Construction Corporation was implementing the project.

"The progress of the work had been very slow and the deadline for the completion of work had been extended to June 2016," Agrawal said. The department officials inspected the construction site and found that the work had been stopped in the site. It was found that about 30 per cent water was flowing in the Indrawati river entering Chhattisgarh while 70 per cent water was flowing in Jhora Canal. The temporary dam had been destroyed.

The minister alleged that a number of correspondences at the department level was made that failed to get any response from the Odisha officials.