Jun 03 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Govt to tread carefully on river inter-linking project
Vishwa Mohan
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New Delhi:
TNN
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To First Link Rivers Within A Basin
The ambitious river inter-linking project will get a new impetus under the Narendra Modi government but the Centre would like to select specific schemes for implementation very cautiously . Its focus will first be on linking rivers within a basin or nearby basins instead of going for distant inter-basin river linkages.“Government will first take up those inter-basin rivers for linking which are close to each other, keeping in mind its feasibility and utility to larger beneficiaries,“ environment minister Prakash Javadekar said.
He told TOI that this was an inter-ministerial matter which would be discussed thoroughly . “We will do the inter-linking of rivers in a manner that it simultaneously takes care of drinkingwater/irrigation needs of people and ecological concerns,“ said the minister.
Though river inter-linking was mooted way back in 1982, it was actively taken up during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure as PM during 1999-2004. It, however, fell off the radar once the UPA came to power. The UPA took it up only during its last year in office after the Supreme Court in February 2012 directed the Centre to implement the river inter-linking project in a time-bound manner and appointed a high-powered committee for its planning and implementation.
The full river inter-linking project has two components -Peninsular and Himalayan. The Peninsular component, involving the rivers in southern India, envisaged developing a `south ern water grid' with 16 river linkages in different states.
This component included diversion of the surplus waters of Mahanadi and Godavari to the Pennar, Krishna, Vaigai and Cauvery rivers.
The Himalayan component, on the other hand, was conceived for building storage reservoirs on the Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their main tributaries both in India and Nepal in order to conserve water during the monsoon for irrigation and generation of hydro-power, besides checking floods.
The Himalayan component comprises 14 links including Brahamputra-Ganga, Kosi-Ghagra, Kosi-Mech, Ghagra-Yamuna, GandakGanga, Sarda-Yamuna, Farakka-Sunderbans, Subernarekha-Mahanadi and Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha.
Both the components have 30 river-linking projects.
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com
He told TOI that this was an inter-ministerial matter which would be discussed thoroughly . “We will do the inter-linking of rivers in a manner that it simultaneously takes care of drinkingwater/irrigation needs of people and ecological concerns,“ said the minister.
Though river inter-linking was mooted way back in 1982, it was actively taken up during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure as PM during 1999-2004. It, however, fell off the radar once the UPA came to power. The UPA took it up only during its last year in office after the Supreme Court in February 2012 directed the Centre to implement the river inter-linking project in a time-bound manner and appointed a high-powered committee for its planning and implementation.
The full river inter-linking project has two components -Peninsular and Himalayan. The Peninsular component, involving the rivers in southern India, envisaged developing a `south ern water grid' with 16 river linkages in different states.
This component included diversion of the surplus waters of Mahanadi and Godavari to the Pennar, Krishna, Vaigai and Cauvery rivers.
The Himalayan component, on the other hand, was conceived for building storage reservoirs on the Ganga and the Brahmaputra and their main tributaries both in India and Nepal in order to conserve water during the monsoon for irrigation and generation of hydro-power, besides checking floods.
The Himalayan component comprises 14 links including Brahamputra-Ganga, Kosi-Ghagra, Kosi-Mech, Ghagra-Yamuna, GandakGanga, Sarda-Yamuna, Farakka-Sunderbans, Subernarekha-Mahanadi and Ganga-Damodar-Subernarekha.
Both the components have 30 river-linking projects.
For the full report, log on to http://www.timesofindia.com
