3 projects for interlinking of rivers identified: Govt

Government today said it has identified three projects for interlinking of rivers and all such initiatives will be taken only when the concerned state governments give their concurrence.
"We take up the river linking projects only when the state concerned gives it concurrence. Without concurrence of states, we will not take up any such project," Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti told Lok Sabha.
Bharti said based on concurrence of the concerned states, three links namely Ken-Betwa link, Damanganga-Pinjal link and Par-Tapi-Narmada link have been taken up for preparation of detailed project report by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) out of 30 inter-state links identified under the National Perspective Plan (NPP).

The DPR for Ken-Betwa link project and Damnganga-Pinjal link has been completed by NWDA and submitted to the states concerned.
She said DPR of Par-Tapi-Narmada link is in various stages of completion and the Supreme Court on February 27, 2012 had directed the government to take up Ken-Betwa link project for implementation at the first instance itself.
Bharti said approximately 35 million hectare of additional irrigation potential and 34,000 mega watts hydro power generation are the likely benefits envisaged under NPP apart from the incidental benefits of flood moderation, navigation, drinking water supply, fisheries, salinity and pollution control.

The Minister said out of the 46 proposals of intra-state links received by NWDA from nine states, the Burhi Gandak- Noon-Baya-Ganga links of Bihar, Kosi-Mechi link of Bihar, Ponnair-Palar link of Tamil Nadu, Wainganga-Naganga link of Maharashtra and Barakar-Daodar-Subernarekha link of Jharkhand have been taken up for the preparation of DPR by NWDA on the request made by the states concerned.

"The DPRs of two intra-state links -- Burhi Gandak-Noon- Baya-Ganga link project and Kosi Mechi link project have been completed and sent to government of Bihar in December 2013 and March 2014 respectively," she said.
Bharti said the government has constituted a consensus group headed by the chairman, central water commission and secretaries of Irrigation/Water resources departments of the concerned states for arriving at consensus on the links for sharing of the surplus water and preparation of DPR by NWDA.
In addition, the issues on the inter-state links are also regularly discussed during the meeting of Governing body and society of the NWDA, she said.