Network of Indian rivers mooted

Creating a network of Indian rivers is more viable than interlinking of rivers and it will help in ensuring water security in the country, a group of experts said today.
The experts under the aegis of NGO Nawad Tech suggested a National Waterways covering the entire country on the lines of National Highways.
The NGO has come out with a Ganga-Kumari National Waterways project and claim it would be more cost-effective and take shorter time to implement than inter-linking of rivers.
"National Waterways project will cover the entire nation just as National highways," A C Kamaraj, Chairman of the Network Committee members, told reporters here.

Kamraj claimed that every year, around 1500 tmc water is flooded into sea. "Ganga-Kumari National Waterways project is using only flood water and will be an answer to flood, drought and poverty," he said.
V Ponraj, Advisor to former President A P J Abdul Kalam, said states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are against interlinking of rivers proposed by the government.

However, he said, some states have come forward to support the waterways initiative.
Ponraj said under this concept put forward by them, water will flow from Ganga to Cauvery and vice versa.
"When Brahmaputra is in spate and water in Ganga region is less, water from Brahmaputra can go to Ganga region. Similarly, when Ganga and Yamuna are in spate, water can go to Brahmaputra region," he said.

Emphasising that there will be no dearth of water anywhere in the country, Kamaraj said water entering the National Waterways can be tapped at any point of requirement.
National Waterways will act as a 15,000 km long reservoir and not as a mere series of link canals, he said.
"Their is no constitutional provision for interlinking but under Art 246, National Waterways can be implemented just like the National Highways.
"Flood waters either in Brahmaputra, Ganga, Krishna or Cauvery will get stored in the National Waterways and the same region will get water for 4 more months for irrigation and throughout the year for drinking," he said.

Ponraj said Canada has proposed initial investment of USD 500 million for the Ganga-Kumari project.
"Operational cost is minimum as there is no pumping of water in the entire system of networking. Every year Rs 1 lakh crores of revenue will be generated," said V K Gupta, organising secretary.
Under the National Waterways project, 150 million acres will get additional irrigation throughout the year.
"Land acquisition is only 2 per cent of the irrigated land compared to other conventional projects, which required 6 to 10 per cent land and thus it reduces the displacement problem associated with interlinking projects," he said.

He said the National Waterways project could be completed in 10 years at a cost of just over Rs 5 lakh crores.