Orissa to spend Rs 882 crore under AIBP

The Orissa government has spent Rs 882.25 crore under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) till the end of January 2011 in this fiscal. The amount spent includes Rs 642.96 crore out of the state's budgetary outlay of Rs 1165 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 235.29 crore out of a Central grant of Rs 404.54 crore received by the state government.

Out of the total assistance of Rs 628.05 crore sought by the state from the Centre under RIDF in 2010-11, the Centre has released Rs 404.54 crore till January end.

The irrigation projects being taken up under AIBP are Subarnarekha multipurpose project, Rengali left canal, Anandapur barrage, Lower Indra and Lower Suktel to name a few.

On the Subarnarekha multipurpose project, Rs 1471.28 crore has been spent till January-end. The project which started in 1996-97, was originally scheduled to be operational by March 2012. However, due to lack of progress of a part of the project in Jharkhand, the project got delayed and March 2014 has been set as the revised target for commissioning of the project.

The project will bring an additional 109,000 hectares of land under irrigation in the state.

The revised cost of the project has been estimated at around Rs 4000 crore.

As per the project plan, a dam will be erected at Chandil, near Jamshedpur and a barrage construction was to be taken up at Galudih to supply water to Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal using the canals. Orissa has 26 per cent share in the Chandil dam and 94 per cent share in the Galudih canal.

Under the project, water will be shared by the states of Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal in the ratio of 71 per cent, 27 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.