Five river linking projects finalized in Budget 2022

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About five river linking projects-

   The draft Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of five river links have been finalized, which include Damanganga – Pinjal, Par – Tapi Narmada, Krishna – Pennar, Godavari – Krishna and Pennar – Cauvery. The central government will provide support for implementation once a consensus is reached among the beneficiary states.

Damanganga – Pinjal river linking project-

• This project envisages transfer of balance available water at the proposed Bhugad reservoir across Daman Ganga River and at the proposed Khargihill reservoir across Vagh river, a tributary of Damanganga river, in Daman Ganga basin for augmentation of water supply to Greater Mumbai to meet its domestic and industrial water requirements in the near future. 
• The Bhugad and Khargi hill reservoirs (proposed by NWDA) and Pinjal reservoir (proposed by Government of Maharashtra across Pinjalriver, a tributary of Vaitarna river) are proposed to be connected through pressure tunnels. 
• The purpose is to make the combined water from Bhugad and Khargihill reservoirs to reach Pinjal reservoir from where further arrangements for transmitting the water to Greater Mumbai will be made by Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and Mumbai Metropolitan RegionDevelopment Authority (MMRDA) as per their plans.

The Par-Tapi-Narmada project-

• It proposes to provide water to drought prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra by diverting excess water from seven reservoirs in the Western Ghats in North Maharashtra and south Gujarat.
• The water from the seven proposed reservoirs would be taken through a 395 km long canal including the 33km length of the feeder canals to take over a part of the command of the on-going Sardar Sarovar Project, while irrigating small enroute areas. 

Krishna – Pennar link project-

• The aim of Krishna- Pennar link is to transfer a part of the additional water available at Srisailam by partial exchange of the surplus waters of the Mahanadi and the Godavari rivers proposed to be brought to the Krishna river. 
• This project has three links, Godavari (Inchampalli)-Krishna (Nagarjunasagar), Krishna (Nagarjunasagar)-Pennar (Somasila) and Pennar (Somasila)-Cauvery (Grand Anicut). 

Godavari – Krishna link project–

• The proposal to link Godavari, which is prone to flooding, and Krishna, which doesn’t have enough water, has been around for several decades.
• According to the draft DPR, around 247 TMC of water can be diverted from Godavari river to Nagarjuna Sagar dam through lifting.
• The project was designed to meet the irrigation and drinking water needs of drought-prone Rayalaseema region in the state.

Pennar – Cauvery link project–

• It is also called Pennar (Somasila) – Palar – Cauvery (Grand anicut) link Project.
• Its purpose is to divert  8565 Mm3 of combined Mahanadi and Godavari surplus waters brought into the Somasila reservoir by Srisailam –Pennar &  Nagarjunasagar – Somasila links to meet the irrigation domestic requirements of enroute basins further transfer to water short Cauvery, Vaigai and Gundar basins. 
• The total length of the link canal is 529.190 km and it will provide irrigation to an area of 491200 ha in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and  Pondicherry.

Extra reading- https://journalsofindia.com/interlinking-of-rivers-2/

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