Nearly four decades after it was conceptualised. India’s first river interlinking project, connecting Ken River in Madhya Pradesh with Betwa in Uttar Pradesh, finally got the green signal from the Union cabinet on December 8. The project is expected to address the woes of five water-starved districts in Uttar Pradesh and six in Madhya Pradesh. It will involve constructing a dam and a channel to transfer water from the Ken to the Betwa rivers in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. However, the project has stoked concerns about its likely environmental impacts – including submergence of a tiger reserve.
The environmental appraisal committee (EAC) had “duly considered” and “agreed” for the phase I of the project in its meeting held on December 30, 2016.
The 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 purposes in Bundelkhand region and generation of 78 MW 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 of area falls in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba, Banda and Jhansi districts.
According to the Water Resources Ministry, a total of 10 villages consisting of 1,585 families are likely to be affected by this project.
The project comprises two powerhouses of 2×30 MW and 3×6 MW each, two tunnels of 1.9 km-long upper level, 1.1 km-long lower level tunnel, 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 NDA government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was then challenged in the Supreme Court, which finally gave the nod in 2013.
Credit : The Hindu
Picture Credit : Google
