River linking can yield 'rich dividends': Jaitley

Stating that river linking can yield "rich dividends", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today called for a serious effort in that direction even as he allocated Rs 100 crore in his maiden budget to expedite preparation of detailed project reports.

In his budget address in Lok Sabha, Jaitley said that rivers are the lifeline of the country as they provide water not only for producing food for the multitudes but also for drinking.

"Unfortunately, the country is not uniformly blessed with perennial rivers. Therefore, an effort to link the rivers can give rich dividends... It is time we made a serious effort in this direction. To expedite the preparation of the Detailed Project Reports, I propose to set aside a sum of Rs 100 crore," he said.

The idea of linking rivers had received an impetus during the previous NDA regime with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee pushing for such projects.

The Ministry of Water Resources had formulated a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for water resources development in 1980, envisaging inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit ones.

These are areas which comprise two components -- Himalayan Rivers Development Component and Peninsular Rivers Development Component.

The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has already identified 14 links under the Himalayan Component and 16 under the one for Peninsular Rivers.

Five Peninsular links -- Ken-Betwa, Parbati-Kalisindh -Chambal, Damanganga-Pinjal, Par-Tapi-Narmada and Godavari (Polavaram)-Krishna (Vijayawada) were identified as priority links for taking up detailed project reports.

The previous UPA government had said that river linking under the Himalayan Component was not practical.