Mulling huge fund for river interlinking: Gadkari

The government is mulling to create a large fund for interlinking of rivers and work on three interlinking projects will start in few months, Union Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday.

Interlinking of rivers is important to save people from floods and droughts, he said at the inauguration of India Water Week-2017 here.

Gadkari said that 30 projects for river linking have been approved, of which work on three projects, namely Ken-Betwa, Par-Tapi Narmada and Daman Ganga-Pinjal will start within three months.

The Minister said that 27 PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana) projects will be completed by the end of this year and 285 new irrigation projects will be taken up by next year to provide irrigation for 1.88 crore hectare of land.

He said drip irrigation and irrigation through pipeline will be the priority areas for the government as this will save large amount of water and also cut down the cost involved in acquiring land.

The Narendra Modi government is keen to provide safe drinking water to every household and irrigation water for every farm, he said.

Gadkari said that the Sardar Sarovar Project recently inaugurated by by the Prime Minister will provide water to "over four crore people and help irrigate over eight lakh hectares of land".

The India Water Week was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind.

--IANS

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