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| Estimated water requirement for 2010 is 710 BCM: Soz | | |
New Delhi, Aug 08: The National Commission for Integrated Water Resources Development Plan has projected the estimates of total annual water requirements for various scenarios, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
In a written reply in the Upper House, Minister of Water Resources Prof Saif-ud-din Soz said that the estimated water requirements for the year 2010 for a high population projection is 710 billion cubic metre (BCM) and the estimated water requirements for the year 2025 for high population projection is 843 BCM.
In another reply, Prof Soz said that the Sardar Sarovar Project is an inter-state multi-purpose project on the river Narmada in Gujarat. It is a joint venture with sharing of irrigation and power from the project among the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
At present, construction of main canal carrying water from Sardar Sarovar Dam upto Rajasthan border is complete upto 357 kms length out of a total length of 458 kms in Gujarat. As per Gujarat government, it is planned to complete remaining 101 kms upto Rajasthan border by October 2006.
Keeping in view the need to accelerate the construction of Narmada main canal and distributaries for early development of irrigation facilities in the command area of the project, the Centre has decided to include Sardar Sarovar Project under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP).
Under this programme, the Centre has released Central loan assistance /grant of Rs 4,415.85 crore from the financial year 1996-97 to March, 2006 out of which rs 339.60 crore was released as grant during the financial year 2005-06.
Prof Soz further said that the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), based on the clearances given by its sub-groups and fulfillment of the requirements laid down by the Supreme Court gives permission to raising of the Sardar Sarovar dam height in stages.
The NCA gave permission to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam from el 110.64 m to el 121.92 m in the 76th emergency meeting held on March 8, 2006, after following the procedure laid down in the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award and Supreme Court order dated October 18, 2000 and March 15, 2005.
However, in view of the apprehensions expressed from different quarters and the continued agitation of the Narmada Bachao Andolan against the decision of the NCA for according permission to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam, the Prime Minister deputed a group of union ministers to examine the ground situation in the submergence area of the project and the rehabilitation sites, in Madhya Pradesh, on April 6-7,2006.
On the rain water harvesting, the minister said that water being a state subject, it is primarily the responsibility of the concerned state governments to adopt a multi pronged strategy for achieving maximum coverage of rain water harvesting in their respective states.
Replying on relaxation in norms for AIBP, Prof Soz said that a group of ministers has been constituted on July 14, 2006 to review the proposal for relaxing norms for the AIBP for speedier completion of water projects.
He said that views expressed in the meeting of the state Irrigation Minister in November 2005 and secretaries of state irrigation department in October 2005 on relaxation of norms of AIBP have been taken into consideration for finalisation of further relaxation of AIBP criteria.
AIBP has been conceptualised to assist the states to complete ongoing irrigation projects and create the irrigation potential in the specified time frame. The NOMs of AIBP are revised from time to time and further relaxation would be considered by the GoM, Prof Soz added. |
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