The Hindu : Work on linking of rivers likely to take off by year-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 02, 2003

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Work on linking of rivers likely to take off by year-end

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Feb. 1. Linking of major rivers in the country, a lifetime project of the nation is likely to take off by the end of the current year. Some links in some parts of the country would be taken up by December this year, said Suresh P. Prabhu, chairman of the task force on inter-linking of rivers, here today.

Talking to newsmen, Mr. Suresh said that it was high time that the project had to be taken up to meet the growing food requirement of an increasing population.

Though it was in the minds of people for quite a long time, it was likely to become a reality, as the Government was now serious about it.

The total cost of the project would be of the order of about Rs. 5.6 lakh crores and it had been planned to complete the linking by 2016 as directed by the Supreme Court. The details of the project would be known only after the preparation of actual project reports of various links.

The fruits of the project, he said, would be phenomenal, as it would create huge employment opportunities in rural areas.

The link would bring thousands of waste and fallow land under irrigation which would improve the livelihood of rural people. The annual food production would increase by at least 450 million tonnes every year. It had been projected that the link would help produce 35,000 mw of hydel power, besides creating national waterways in the country.

The task force had already taken into consideration major aspects such as ecological, financial, and organisational structure of the project.

Admitting that there had been a lot of "misinformation and disinformation" campaign against the project, Mr. Prabhu said soon the task force would launch a website which would provide all necessary information about the project to create an awareness among the people. Interested parties could also send their suggestions to the task force through the website. Already many international experts had come forward with their proposals which would be considered before finalising the project report.

On the funding of the project, he said the Government had not finalised any financial model for the project though it had appointed K.V. Kamath of ICICI as the resource person for the project. States would not be burdened as many international funding organisations, NRIs, NGOs, and private individuals had come forward to finance the project.

The annual requirement for implementing the project would be just two per cent of the GDP which was manageable, he added.

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