Lok Sabha Question No. 1098 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-08
Subject: Inter-linking of Rivers
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Kaushalendra Kumar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI

## DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1098

ANSWERED ON 08.02.2024

## INTER-LINKING OF RIVERS

## †1098.   SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  is  contemplating  on  any  special  scheme  to  inter-link  rivers  of  the  country particularly in Bihar;

(b) if so, the details along with the current status thereof;

(c) whether any shortcomings have been reported in the earlier schemes of inter-linking of rivers and if so, the details thereof;

(d) the details of timeline fixed for completion of inter-linking of rivers;

(e) whether it is a fact that on one side the northern Bihar region gets devastated by catastrophic floods every year and on the other side the Southern Bihar region is compelled to face drought;

(f)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  concrete  efforts  being  made  so  far  towards  preventing  the  impending devastation due to delay in inter-linking of the rivers; and

(g) whether Bihar has to face fury of floods due to the excess water released in rivers every year from the upper catchment area and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI ( SHRI BISHWESWAR TUDU )

(a)  &  (b) A  National  Perspective  Plan  (NPP)  was  prepared  in  the  year  1980,  for  water  resources development through inter basin transfer of water, from water surplus basins to water-deficit basins/ regions. Under the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 inter-linking of rivers (ILR)  projects  (16  under  Peninsular  Component  and  14  under  Himalayan  Component)  for  preparation  of Feasibility Reports (FRs). Out of the 30 ILR projects identified under the NPP, Pre-Feasibility Reports (PFRs) of all the 30 projects  have been completed, while FRs of 24 projects and Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of 11 projects have been completed. Under the NPP, 6 ILR projects, inter alia, benefit the State of Bihar, details of which are given at Annexure-I . Details and current status of the ILR projects under the NPP are given at

## Annexure-II.

(c) to (g) Planning of any ILR project is improved and modified progressively at every stage of study in consultation with the concerned States. However, for an ILR project to reach implementation stage, consensus building amongst the party States remains the biggest challenge.

Government of India is pursuing the ILR programme in a consultative manner and has accorded top priority to it. Concerted efforts at various levels have been made to build necessary consensus amongst the party States, for implementation of various ILR projects. A 'Special Committee on Inter-linking of Rivers' has  been  constituted  in  September,  2014  for  the  implementation  of  ILR  programme.  21  meetings  of  the Special  Committee  have  been  held  so  far.  Further,  a  Task  Force  for  Inter-linking  of  Rivers  has  been constituted in April, 2015 for expediting the works under the ILR programme and 18 meetings of the Task Force have been held so far. States have wide representation and active participation in these meetings.  The implementation of the ILR projects depends on the party States to reach a consensus.

Further, as per information provided by the Government of Bihar, the State of Bihar is prone to floods in its northern regions, having flood prone area of 68.80 lakh hectares. Predominantly, northern part of Bihar gets  affected  by  floods  every  year  due  to  heavy  rainfall  in  the  upper  catchment  areas,  which  mainly  lie  in Nepal.  The  southern  part  of  Bihar  faces  problems  of  flash  floods  as  well  as  drought.  As  intimated  by  the Government of  Bihar,  3800  kilometres  of  flood-protection  embankment  has  been  constructed  by  the  State Government to mitigate floods.

***

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) & (b) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1098 ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 08.02.2024 REGARDING 'INTER-LINKING OF RIVERS'.

## Details of ILR projects benefitting the State of Bihar

|   Sl. No | Name                                                    | States / Countries benefited      | Annual Irrigation (Lakh hectares)   | Domestic &Industrial (Million Cubic Metres)   | Hydro power (Megawatt)     | Status                                        |
|----------|---------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Kosi-Mechi link                                         | Bihar &Nepal                      | 4.74 (2.99+1.75)                    | 24                                            | 3180                       | PFR completed                                 |
|        2 | Kosi-Ghaghra link                                       | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) & Nepal | 8.35 (6.05+1.20 +1.10)              | 0                                             | --                         | FR completed                                  |
|        3 | Chunar-Sone Barrage link                                | Bihar &UP                         | 0.67 (0.13 + 0.54)                  | --                                            | --                         | PFR completed                                 |
|        4 | Sone Dam - Southern Tributaries of Ganga link           | Bihar & Jharkhand                 | 3.07 (2.39 + 0.68 )                 | 360                                           | 95(90 Dam PH)&5 (Canal PH) | PFR completed                                 |
|        5 | Manas-Sankosh- Tista-Ganga (M-S- T-G) link              | Assam, West Bengal (WB) & Bihar   | 3.41 (2.05 + 1.00 + 0.36 )          | --                                            | --                         | FR completed                                  |
|        6 | Jogighopa-Tista- Farakka link (Alternative to M- S-T-G) | Assam, WB & Bihar                 | 3.559 (0.975+ 1.564+ 1.02)          | 265                                           | 360                        | PFR completed (The proposal has been dropped) |

## ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) & (b) OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1098 ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 08.02.2024 REGARDING 'INTER-LINKING OF RIVERS'.

## Details and current status of the ILR Projects under the NPP

## Peninsular Component

|   Sl. No | Name                                                                                                     | States benefited                          | Status                                         |
|----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | a. Mahanadi (Manibhadra) - Godavari (Dowlaiswaram) link                                                  | Andhra Pradesh (AP) & Odisha              | FR completed                                   |
|        1 | b. Alternate Mahanadi (Barmul) - Rushikulya - Godavari (Dowlaiswaram) link                               | AP& Odisha                                | FR completed                                   |
|        2 | Godavari (Polavaram) - Krishna (Vijayawada) link                                                         | AP                                        | FR completed                                   |
|        3 | a.)Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) link b.) Alternate Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna | Telangana                                 | FR completed                                   |
|        3 | (Nagarjunasagar) link *                                                                                  | Telangana                                 | DPR completed                                  |
|        4 | Godavari (Inchampalli/ SSMPP) - Krishna (Pulichintala) link                                              | Telangana &AP                             | DPR completed                                  |
|        5 | a.) Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) - Pennar (Somasila ) link                                                   | AP                                        | FR completed                                   |
|        5 | b.)Alternate Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) - Pennar (Somasila ) link *                                        | AP                                        | DPR completed                                  |
|        6 | Krishna (Srisailam) - Pennar link                                                                        | AP                                        | Draft DPR completed                            |
|        7 | Krishna (Almatti) - Pennar link                                                                          | AP &Karnataka                             | Draft DPR completed                            |
|        8 | a.)Pennar (Somasila) - Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link                                                       | AP, Tamil Nadu& Puducherry                | FR completed                                   |
|        8 | b.) Alternate Pennar (Somasila) - Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link *                                          | AP, Tamil Nadu& Puducherry                | DPR completed                                  |
|        9 | Cauvery (Kattalai) - Vaigai -Gundar link                                                                 | Tamil Nadu                                | DPR completed                                  |
|       10 | a. Parbati -Kalisindh - Chambal link                                                                     | Madhya Pradesh (MP)& Rajasthan            | FR completed                                   |
|       10 | b) Modified Parbati - Kalisindh-Chambal link (duly integrated with ERCP)                                 | MP &Rajasthan                             | Draft PFR completed                            |
|       11 | Damanganga - Pinjal link (As per DPR )                                                                   | Maharashtra (only water supply to Mumbai) | DPR completed                                  |
|       12 | Par-Tapi-Narmada link (As per DPR)                                                                       | Gujarat &Maharashtra                      | DPR completed                                  |
|       13 | Ken-Betwa link                                                                                           | Uttar Pradesh (UP)&MP                     | DPR completed& project is under implementation |
|       14 | Pamba - Achankovil - Vaippar link                                                                        | Tamil Nadu &Kerala                        | FR completed                                   |
|       15 | Bedti - Varda link                                                                                       | Karnataka                                 | DPR completed                                  |
|       16 | Netravati - Hemavati link**                                                                              | Karnataka                                 | PFR completed                                  |

* Due  to  pending  consensus  on  Manibhadra  and  Inchampalli  dams,  Alternate  study  to  divert  unutilized waters of Godavari river was carried out and DPR of Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) Pennar  (Somasila)  -  Cauvery  (Grand  Anicut)  link  projects  was  completed.  Godavari-Cauvery  (Grand Anicut) link project has been prepared comprising of Godavari (Inchampalli ) - Krishna  (Nagarjunasagar), Krishna (Nagarjunasagar)- Pennar (Somasila) and Pennar(Somasila)-Cauvery(Grand Anicut) link projects.
- ** Further studies are not taken up since after implementation of Yettinahole project by Govt. of Karnataka, no surplus water is available in Netravati basin for diversion through this link.

## Himalayan Component

|   Sl. No | Name                                                  | States / Countries benefited             | Status                                        |
|----------|-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Kosi-Mechi link                                       | Bihar &Nepal                             | PFR completed                                 |
|        2 | Kosi-Ghaghra link                                     | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) &Nepal         | FR completed                                  |
|        3 | Gandak - Ganga link                                   | UP &Nepal                                | FR completed (Indian portion)                 |
|        4 | Ghaghra - Yamuna link                                 | UP &Nepal                                | FR completed (Indian portion)                 |
|        5 | Sarda - Yamuna link                                   | UP &Uttarakhand                          | FR completed                                  |
|        6 | Yamuna-Rajasthan link                                 | Haryana &Rajasthan                       | FR completed                                  |
|        7 | Rajasthan-Sabarmati link                              | Rajasthan &Gujarat                       | FR completed                                  |
|        8 | Chunar-Sone Barrage link                              | Bihar &UP                                | PFR completed                                 |
|        9 | Sone Dam - Southern Tributaries of Ganga link         | Bihar &Jharkhand                         | PFR completed                                 |
|       10 | Manas-Sankosh-Tista-Ganga link                        | (M-S-T-G) Assam, West Bengal (WB) &Bihar | FR completed                                  |
|       11 | Jogighopa-Tista-Farakka link (Alternative to M-S-T-G) | Assam, WB&Bihar                          | PFR completed (The proposal has been dropped) |
|       12 | Farakka-Sundarbans link                               | WB                                       | FR completed                                  |
|       13 | Ganga (Farakka) - Damodar-Subarnarekha link           | WB, Odisha & Jharkhand                   | FR completed                                  |
|       14 | Subarnarekha-Mahanadi link                            | WB&Odisha                                | FR completed                                  |

*****