MP to cover 5 million hectares under irrigation

Buoyed with a substantial increase in area under irrigation, the Madhya Pradesh government now has plans to take this to five  million hectares.

Existing irrigated area currently stands at 3.6 million hectares, and has risen almost five fold from 750,000 hectares during the past decade.

During his recent visit to state, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had appreciated efforts in attracting investments in irrigation and said that he had learnt from Madhya Pradesh that there was a need to make further investments in irrigation sector across the country.

"We plan to augment our irrigation cover to five million hectares instead of four million hectares, as was targeted in our Vision Document 2018," MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had recently told Business Standard. The major focus would be on minor and micro irrigation projects, he had said.

The state has so far completed 254 minor irrigation projects and 700 more are to be completed by 2018. The Vision 2018 document also mandates that state has to raise micro-irrigation projects five fold.

"The micro-irrigation project network alone envisages covering an additional area of 700,00 hectares," a well-placed government official said. "All major and medium irrigation projects would also have 10 per cent cover from micro-irrigation."

As many as 229 irrigation projects in Chambal, Betwa, Sindh, Ken, Banganga and Tons rivers have covered major irrigation area in 30 districts through World Bank-assisted water restricting projects, with an approximate investment of Rs 3,000 crore, the official said.