Centre to bring two projects connecting Cauvery water with TN

Union Minister of Water Resources Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the Centre will bring two connecting projects to transfer surplus water of Godavari River to Tamil Nadu.

Gadkari, after Supreme Court's much awaited verdict on the Cauvery water dispute, said the Centre had studied two river connectivity projects that would transport Godavari river water to the tail end of Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court in its verdict on the decades-long dispute on Friday increased Karnataka's share of water and directed the state to release 177.25 TMC to Tamil Nadu.

"We will transfer surplus water from Godavari to Krishna, then Krishna's water to Penna, and finally to Cauvery," Gadkari said.

He explained the Godavari water would be transferred to the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh and then to Krishna.

"We will try to overcome the shortage of water with the help of 3,000 TMC surplus water from Godavari which goes waste into the sea."

Cauvery originates in Karnataka's Kodagu district, flows into Tamil Nadu, and reaches the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar.

The Tamil Nadu government in 2016 sought the apex court's intervention, saying there was a deficit of 50.0052 TMC ft. of water released from Karnataka's reservoirs, with respect to the minimum limit prescribed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.