State to expand irrigation

The state government has drawn up plans to create an additional irrigation facility of 200,000 acres this year in all river basin areas in the state, minister for water resources Basavaraj Bommai said today.

The government has earmarked Rs 7,800 crore in the budget for irrigation sector and another Rs 2,000 crore would be raised through borrowings to meet the expenditure, he told reporters after reviewing progress of works in his ministry with top officials.

The government would be taking up the task for reviving fertility of 100,000 hectares of land where productivity has gone down due to excess use of water in parts of the state, he said. The state and the Centre have inked an MoU to implement the project over the next five years with an outlay of Rs 603 crore on equal cost-sharing basis, Bommai said.

Of the Rs 760 crore fund set apart for taking up irrigation improvement project in Command Area Development scheme, about Rs 160 crore would be spent this year on this project, he said, adding that Nabard will provide Rs 80 crore.

The pilot project implemented in Ghataprabha dam in Belgaum district to regulate water flow into canals installing electronic flow metres was a success and the government planned to bring other dams under the similar system, Bommai said. In the last three years, the government had created an additional irrigation facility on over 350,000 acres, he added.