Status of river linking project in india

India accounts for 2.4% of the world’s surface area but supports 16.7% of the world’s population. India possesses meager 4% of world’s water resources, that too highly uncertain in time and space due to its climate

1. STATUS OF RIVER LINKING PROJECT IN INDIA PRESENTED BY:- AP19354 :- KHUSHAL TADAS

2. INTRODUCTION India accounts for 2.4% of the world’s surface area but supports 16.7% of the world’s population. India possesses meager 4% of world’s water resources, that too highly uncertain in time and space due to its climate. River Linking is a project of linking two or more rivers by creating a network of manually created canals, and providing water to the land areas that does not have river water access and reducing the flow of water to sea using this means.

3. This inter-linking project is completely managed and controlled by India’s National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which operates under the Union Ministry of Water Resources. The project is bifurcated into 3 parts: 1.  A northern Himalayan Rivers inter-link component. 2.  A southern Peninsular component. 3.  An intrastate rivers linking component. NWDA has gone through the project details and reports have been prepared on 14 inter-link projects of the Himalayan component, whereas 16 inter-link projects for the southern Peninsular component and 37 of intrastate river linking project reports have been completed

4. BENEFITS OF RIVER LINKING PROJECT Irrigation - By linking of rivers vast amount of land areas which does not have otherwise irrigated and unusable for agriculture become fertile. Flood prevention – By creating network of rivers flood & drought problem can be greatly avoided by channeling excess water to areas that are not experiencing a flood or are dry. This works similar to canal system in Netherlands to channel excess water from sea. Generation of electricity - With new canals built, feasibility of new DAMS to generate hydroelectric power becomes a possibility. Navigation - Newly created network of canals opens up new routes and ways and routes of water navigation, which is generally more efficient and cheaper compared to road transport.

5. Higher GDP Growth -By interlinking rivers, there will be a boost and increased employment in agricultural sector, power, transportation; construction etc. Business Opportunities – It is expected to generate large-scale business opportunities in manufacture of mechanical equipment's, earthmovers, stone crushers, power shovels, other transportation vehicles, etc. In addition, this project would also require large scale manufacturing of construction materials such as an estimated 56 million tones of cement and 2 million tonnes of steel etc. Drinking Water - Majority of our population will get drinking water; Special emphasis is that all the cities connected by Golden quadrilateral project will get drinking water. Revenue - The government is expecting revenues from benefits of navigating through waters, increased tourism, joint ventures, private initiatives and cess on waters

6. M AJOR RIVER-LINKING PROJECTS Damanganga The name given to this River-Linking project is the Pinjal Link Project. This project has been proposed by the Government of India’s National Water Development Authority (NWDA). The major idea behind the linkage of this project is to connect the Daman Ganga river to the Pinjal reservoir, located on the Pinjal river to the south.    Par- Tapi The name given to this project is Narmada Link Project. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Par- Tapi -Narmada link project was completed till August 2015 by National Water Development Agency (NWDA). It was submitted to the Government of Gujarat and Maharashtra Manas - Sankosh - Teesta -Ganga Link This link project is initiated under the Himalayan component and is a part of National Perspective Plan (NPP). The basic idea behind this link is to divert the surplus waters of Sankosh and Manas rivers in order to control the flow of Ganga at Farakka . 

7. Mahanadi-Godavari Link Project This is a link project based on a critical link of the nine link system. This includes Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna- Pennar -Cauvery-Vaigai- Gundar under NPP. In August 1980, this project was prepared by the Ministry of Irrigation. Ken – Betwa Link Project The Government of India has declared this link project as a national project. It will involve construction of a dam on the Ken river famously known as the Karnavati , situated in north-central India. This is a 22 km (14-mile) canal which is connecting the river to the shallow Betwa. Intra-State Links The National Water Development Agency (NWDA), has already received 46 proposals from the intra-state links of 9 states. These include Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Bihar. As on March 2015, from the total of 46 proposals, Pre-Feasibility Reports (PFRs) of 35 intra-state links is already completed by NWDA

8. CURRENT STATUS OF RIVER LINKING PROJECT As of now, only one of the interlinks has actually been completed, the Godavari and Krishna rivers were linked through a canal in Andhra Pradesh. This was completed in September 2015 at a cost of ₹ 1300 crores. With this project, water will be transferred  from  Godavari  to   Krishna river. About 8500 cubit feet of water will be diverted from Godavari (which was going to Bay of Bengal), and will be transferred to Krishna river, connecting about 175 kilometres of distance. The government believes that this will help the areas to be drought free with better access to water.

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