MANDI: The water woes of citizens of national territory of Delhi will get a new lease of life as they will get 498 million cubic meters from the live storage dam of the Rs 6700 crore Renukaji project whose foundation stone is laid by Prime Minister Narender Modi from Mandi on December 25. The dam will be ready by 2026 and will fulfil about 40 percent of drinking water requirement of Delhi.
After running into many glitches and hiccups for long 29 years, Prime Minister Narender Modi brought all the six stake-holding states on board and Central Cabinet held in New Delhi last week accorded approval to the 40 MW Renuka ji Project as part of Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayi Yojana (PMKSY) of national importance.
The six beneficiary states are Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. They signed the agreement on January 9, 2019. Ministry of Jal Shakti accepted the project report of Rs 6946.99 crore on 9th December, 2019.
The project oustees spreading in 24 gram panchayats of the Renuka region in Sirmaur district are demanding factor-2 compensation for the cultivated land. The millions cumecs of monsoons water that go waste flowing downstream will now be stored in the 148 meter high rockfill dam that will run for 24 km long.
He said that live storage of dam would be 498 million cubic meters which would be used for supplying drinking water at the rate of 23 cubic meters per second to National Capital Territory of Delhi.
It will also generate 200 million units of energy in a surface power house with 40 MW installed capacity which would be utilized by the state Government, he added.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur thanked the Prime Minister saying that construction of project is expected to start by December, 2022 and would be completed in six years time. CAT plan works with total outlay of Rs. 160.34 crore will be done to improve the health of catchment. After commissioning of the project, one percent of annual revenue will be distributed in the dam affected areas every year, he added.
The cost of project was Rs 3572 crore in 1994, that now has shot up to Rs 6900 crore as the project remains in deep freeze for last 25 years. HP Power corporation Ltd(HPCL), which is executed the project had distributed Rs 446. 96 crore state had received from Centre in the past to the dam oustees in 24 gram panchayats of Sirmaur district. Himachal demanded to fund all components in 90: 10.
All clearances including environmental and forest clearances have been done for the project as far as Himachal is concerned. The state committee headed by principal chief conservator of forests, constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to assess the status of the project, submitted its report to the NGT in 2018-19.
Renukaji Dam :
The Renukaji dam on Giri river in Sirmaur would supply 23 cumecs of water to Delhi.
Himachal will get 40 MW power while the stored 49800 ha m of live water will be shared by Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.
(Kuldeep Chauhan, Editor, HimbuMail)
