Work on Ken-Betwa river linking project to start this year

The work on phase I of Ken-Betwa river linking project will begin by the middle of this year and it be completed in a time-bound manner, Union Minister Vijay Goel said today.
Minister of State for Water Resources Goel made the comments while chairing 12th meeting of special committee for inter-linking river here, an official statement said.
Goel also reiterated that the ministry had identified five priority links for inter-liking rivers.
The committee reviewed the follow up action on decisions taken during its last meeting, held on November 9.
Besides Ken-Betwa, the panel discussed various issues relating to Damanganga-Pinjal, Par-Tapi-Narmada Link Projects, Mahanadi-Godavari, surplus water in river basin for inter-linking of rivers and restructuring of National Water Development Agency.

Union Cabinet had set up the special committee in its meeting held on July 24, 2014 to discuss and expedite inter-linking projects by evolving consensus.

The Ken-Betwa river linking project envisages construction of a dam across river Ken in Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh to irrigate 6.35 lakh hectares of land, serve drinking water in Bundelkhand region and generate 78 MW of hydropower.
Of this, 3.69 lakh hectares will be covered in Madhya Pradesh's Chattarpur, Tikamgarh and Panna districts. The remaining 2.65 lakh hectares falls in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh's Mahoba, Banda and Jhansi districts.
A total of 10 villages consisting of 1,585 families are likely to be affected by this project. About 9,000 hectares would be submerged, out of which 4,141 hectares are forestland in Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.

The project comprises two powerhouses of 2x30 MW and 3x6 MW each, two tunnels of 1.9 km long at upper level, 1.1 km long tunnel at lower level and a 221 km long Ken-Betwa link canal, proposed on the left bank of the river.
The project was first mooted in the early 1980s but was actively taken up by the previous NDA government under then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was then challenged in the Supreme Court, which finally gave the nod in 2013.