By Our Staff Reporter
New Delhi, 21 Sep: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in a meeting on the Kishau Dam Multipurpose Project held under the Chairmanship of Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, here, today. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also participated in the meeting on a virtual basis.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami and the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Jai Ram Thakur presented the opinions and views of their respective states regarding the project. Dhami stressed that in case of increase in the cost of project DPR, the power component cost be kept constant or the increased power component cost should be borne by the other four beneficiary states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi so that the electricity supply could be ensured to the consumers of the state at affordable rates.
Dhami added that this national project would prove to be a milestone for the development of Uttarakhand, because during the period of project development, various sources of income enhancement such as permanent and temporary employment would be available directly and indirectly to the local residents and villagers and the problem of migration could be controlled to a great extent.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that the next meeting would be held soon after discussing the points raised at today’s meeting.
It is worth mentioning that the work of implementation of Kishau Multipurpose Dam Project is being done by Kishau Corporation Limited, a joint venture of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh Government. This project was declared as a National Project in February 2008. The Kishau Dam project will be the second largest dam project in Asia. It will have a height of 236 meters and a length of 680 meters. Kishau project is proposed on the Tons River in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state and Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. With this, 97,076 hectare land will be irrigated by 1324 MCAM live storage, 617 MCM will be available for drinking water and industrial use, from which the irrigation requirement of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan and drinking water requirement of Delhi will be met. In addition, this project will also generate 660 MW of hydroelectricity, from which 1379 MU of green electric energy will be obtained, which will be made equally available to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
The total cost of the project by the Central Water Commission as per the price level of March, 2018 is estimated to be Rs 11,550 crore, in which the cost of water component is Rs10,013.96 crore and the cost of electricity component is Rs 1,536.04 crores. Presently, the DPR of the project is under preparation and it is estimated that the cost of the project is likely to increase at present rates.
In view of being a national project, 90 percent of the water component cost (irrigation and drinking water) is to be financed by the Government of India and 10 percent by the beneficiary states for the implementation of the project and the electricity component cost will be shared by the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments to be borne equally. Uttarakhand wants the Centre to bear any additional cost increase in the power component in view of its limited resources.
Secretary from Uttarakhand R Meenakshi Sundaram, Hari Chand Semwal and officials of Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India were present at the meeting.
