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Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 16
Since parts of Maharashtra suffer from perennial drought even as other parts receive excess rainfall, the Devendra Fadnavis government has mooted a plan for the transfer of water to drought-hit areas.
During his Independence Day address here on Thursday, Fadnavis mooted the idea of diverting water from rivers in the Konkan region to the drought-hit Marathwada region. He also suggested building a 480-km long tunnel to carry water from the Wainganga river which flows into Telangana to the dry Vidarbha region.
“We can prevent drought in Marathwada and north Maharashtra by diverting water from Konkan's rivers to the Godavari river basin," Fadnavis said after the flag hoisting ceremony.
Sources in the state irrigation department said the diversion of water from Konkan's rivers to the Godavari will be part of the water grid which the state government is building with assistance from Israel.
An earlier proposal in this regard envisaged constructing a lift-irrigation project to move the water through the Sahyadri mountain range to the Godavari basin.To combat the drought in Vidarbha, Fadnavis is pushing for interlinking Wainganga and Nalganga rivers in Vidarbha by building the 480-km long tunnel.
State government officials say, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has already given the green signal for the project. The 480-km long canal will pass through Bhandara, Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Akola and Buldana districts, all of which severe water shortage, according to irrigation department officials.
The project is expected to bring more than 4 lakh hectares of cultivable area under irrigation, according to the state government's estimates.