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INTERLINKING OF INDIAN RIVERS

ABSTRACT
At present, India suffers a lot due to inequality in water access across the diverse
eco-regions. To satisfy this, interlinking major rivers of country seems to appeal to the
popular imagination. The project promises to be most massive and most controversial
infrastructure, development that might ever be undertaken. Though the cost of
implementation is high, this is only a option available to solve water crisis with
reasonable returns.
Interlinking of major rivers not only break Indias water problem but also provide
cheap surface transport throughout the year as navigational canals, hydropower
generation, flood control, irrigation and drinking water.
This paper deals at length, the idea of linking canals to divert surplus water from
some selected rivers to water short region. Also a deal with envisages networking of
major rivers through construction of two major contour canals, one in Himalayan and
other in peninsular region. This project has triple function of impounding, transmitting
and distributing of floodwater among various river basins. This ambitious project has a
potential of capturing India into the galaxy of developed country. This project is
acclaimed to be technically feasible and economically viable from techno-economic
angle.
The conclusion of this paper will give a clear idea about feasibility of networking
of major rivers, which is the major solution for Indias water problem.

INTRODUCTION
According to National Water Policy (1987) adopted by Govt. of India, water
should be made available to water short areas by transfer from other areas including
transfers from one river basin to another based on national perspective after taking into
account requirements of the areas or basins.
Under this plan, it has envisaged two components, namely the Himalayan and
the Peninsular. The project considered transmission of water mostly by gravity and
through dams and storages. Only at one place the water needs lifting by 120m. The
total estimate of length of river links and canals will exceed 5000 kms. of waterways. In
addition to this, many minor irrigation works and storage facilities will be constructed in
all States of the country as part of the plan. Thus the river-links cover nearly all states.
The scope of the project may be extended in some of the States like Maharashtra to
bring more land under irrigation. This paper aims at discussing the proposed interbasin
water transfer links, benefits of the project, financing and management of project and
overall feasibility of the project.

NEED OF THE PROJECT


India is placed at seventh position as far as the area is concerned. Even though
Russia has largest area, it has only 26% arable (cultivated) land. But India is blessed
with arable land, which is about 55%. But what is about irrigable land? India has
5,60,000 hectares of irrigable land which requires water. Irrigated land increases yield
per acre four times than that unirrigated land. If the water is made available for total land
India will place in the galaxy of developed countries.
The average annual precipitation is 400 Million Hectares Meter (MHM).Out of this
70MHM evaporates, 115 MHM percolates and 215 MHM is runoff.A proper planning
should be made to arrest the runoff, which is about 215 MHM. This problem can be
tackled by arresting a large chunk of water through national river-linking program.

National rivers linking project: The project is prepared by NWTA which involves water transmission mostly by
gravity and through dams and storages. The objectives of project are to workout basin
wise surpluses, deficits and possibilities of interlinking them and to make the country
permanent drought proof, especially mitigation of floods of rivers Ganga, Bramhaputra
and Mahanadi. Under this plan it has envisaged two components they are Himalayan
and Peninsular

Interbasin water transfer river links.


The Himalayan Component This component consist of 14 links with two systems,
one with 12 interdependable links and another with 2 independent links (Table 1 and Fig
1). Dams will be constructed on tributaries of Gnaga and Brahmaputra in India, Nepal
and Bhutan. It will link Brahmaputra with Ganga and Ganga with the Mahanadi,
benefiting the states of west Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. It also
envisages linking tributaries of Ganga on east which have surplus water, to the
tributaries on west, benefiting the states of U.P. , Uttaranchal, Haryana, Rajasthan and
Gujarat. The Himalayan component would provide drought mitigation to 17 lakh
hectares. Flood control of Ganga and Brahmaputra basins by construction of dams,
irrigation to 22 lakh hectares and generation of around 30,000 MW of hydropower.
Flood peaks are expected to reduce by about 20-30%. It would also provide the
necessary discharge for augmentation of flows at Farakka required to flush the Kolkata
port and the inland navigation facilities across the country.

Himalayan rivers development envisages construction of storage reservoirs on


the principal tributaries of Ganga and Brahmaputra in India, Nepal and Bhutan, along
with interlinking canal systems to transfer surplus flows of the eastern tributaries of
Ganga to the west, apart from linking of the main Brahmaputra and its tributaries with
Ganga and Ganga with Mahanadi.

Table :- Proposed Interbasing Water Transfer Links Himalayan Component Peninsular


component
1. Brahmaputra -Ganga (MSTG) 16 Godavari ( Inchampalli low dam)
2. Kosi- Ghagra - Krishna ( Nagarjuna Sagar tail pond)
3. Gandak - Ghagra 17.Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna
4. Ghagra - Yamuna ( Nagarjun Sagar)
5. Sarda - Yamuna 18. Godavari ( Polavaram) - Krishna 6. Yamuna - Rajasthan
( Vijaywada) 7. Rajasthan - Sabarmati 19. Krishna ( Almatti ) - Pennar
8. Chunar - Sone barrage 20. Krishna ( Srisailam ) - Pennar 9. Sone dam - Southern
tributaries of Ganga 21. Krishna ( Nagarjun Sagar) - Pennar 10. Ganga - Damodar Subernarekha ( Somsila) 11. Subernarekha - Mahanadi 22. Pennar - Cauvery (Grand
anicut)
12. Kosi - Mechi 23.Cauvery (Kattalai) - Vajgai - Gundar. 13. Farkka - Sunderbans 24.
Ken - Betwa 14. Brahmaputra (ALT) - Ganga ( JTF) 25. Parbati - Kalisindh - Chambal
15. Mahanadi (Manibhadra) - Godavari( Dowlaiswaram) 26. Par - Tapi - Narmada 27.
Damanganga - Pinjal 28. Bedti - Varda 29. Netravati - Hemavati 30. Pamba - Achankovil
- Vaippar

The peninsular component: This component consists of16 links (Table 1) transmitting surplus water from
Mahanadi and Godavari to deficit basins of Krishana , Pennar and Cauvery benefiting
areas in Orrisa , Andhrapradesh ,Karnataka , Tamilnadu and Pondechery. Broadly the
peninsular component is divided into four major parts as follows:

1) Interlinking of Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery rivers and building storages at


potential sites in these basins: This is the major interlinking of the river systems where
surplus from the Mahanadi and Godavari are intended to be transferred to the deficient
areas in south.
2) Interlinking of west-flowing rivers, North of Mumbai and South of Tapi: This scheme
envisages construction of as many optimal storages as possible on these streams and
interlinking them. The scheme provides water supply canal to the metropolitan areas of
Mumbai. It provides irrigation to the coastal areas in Maharashtra.
3) Interlinking of KenChambal rivers: The scheme provides water grid for
Madhayapradesh andUttarpradesh and interlinking canal backed by as many storages
as possible.
4) Diversion of other west flowing rivers: Heavy rainfall on the western side of the
western Ghats runs down numerous streams which take their flow into the Arabian sea.
Construction of an interlinking canal system backed up by adequate storages could be
planned to meet all requirements of Konkan and Kerala.
The Peninsular component is expected to provide additional irrigation of about 13
Million Hectares and is expected to generate about 4 million KW of power.

Quantum of work involved in the project


As we said that this is a mega project, it will definately involve the huge quantities
in the sence of labour and materials.
This project will include about 55890 m.cu.m. and concrete and steel require
quantities are 3507m.cu.m. and 30 m. tonnes respectively. It will also require nearly

9953 crore days of unskilled labours, 360 m. days of semiskill labour and 1.25 m. days
of skilled labours. As we look are looking towards this quantity of labour task force it will
produce highly employment potential.

Benefits of the project:


The river linking project will help to add 34000 MW gdenration of hydro-electricity.
Advantages of the project are flood and draught control, improved agriculture,
alternative transport, higher GDP growth (4%), decentralisation of cities, social benefits,
boost in fisheries and tourism. Major environmental profits from the project are improved
public health due to water supply sanitation, reduced pressure on stressed supply
system, reduced use of local water for irrigation, reduced pressure on overdrafted
ground water and reduced pollution in some of river.

Plausibility of the project:


1. Hydropower genration:
The biggest bonus of this project is the production of electricity. This project will add
34000MW of hydroelectricity. The cost of production of hydroelectricity is Rs. 18 to 20
crores per generation of MW. To produce 34000MW of electricity, Rs. 6.8 lakh crores of
money is required. This means all this is bonus ones the project (costing Rs. 5.6 lakhs
crores) is ready.

2. Irrigation:
This project has a potential to irrigate another 3.5 crores hectare-metre. Irrigation
has genral norms for minor irrigation at Rs.30000 per hectare. The B/C ratio should be
not less than 1. This means if the cost of irrigation of one hectare is Rs. 30000, one
must get an income of Rs. 30000 out of it. When one makes an expense of Rs. 5.6
lakhs crores and irrigates 3.5 crore hectare-metre come to about Rs.16000 only, which
is about half of present norms. This is definately a big advantage.

3. Human Resources :
India will surpassed China in 2035 as far as population is concerned. If we look
at our awesome population from resource point of view, it will be the biggest advantage.
And this human resource can be very well utilised in project like river linking.

4. Employement :

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India is Rs. 22 lakhs crores. There are 64%
labour force in agriculture, 72% people depend on agriculture, but only 1% student go to
this important sector as far as higher education is concerned. There is no
unemployement in agriculture sector but if we properly rearrange on our resources we
can definately go ahead of other countries with the help of this megaproject.
The major benefits of this project are, we can cover 56 million hectare arid
regions. We also get 30000 millon cu.m. While looking towards these major benefits we
can not negotiate the another useful things which we get, that are 38245 Km extra
roads and 1.2 million hectre of fresh water fishing area.
Financing and Management of the Project :
Economists have expressed their concern regarding the estimated huge cost of
the project. Even though the cost of project is large, it is about 25% of national GDP.
Kalyan Raman (2003) discussed innovative ways of financing for the project. He
proposed Nine crores acres of additional arable land with assured irrigation shall be
created. At a very conservative estimate of Rs.1 lakh per acre, the project cost can be
obtained upfront, i.e. Rs. 9 lakh crores.
The ultimate beneficiaries may be issued loans guaranteed by ICICI and other
financial instituations with a five year grace period and repayment period of 20 years. It
may be insured that the distribution of land to the beneficiaries is handled transparently
and justly. He further suggested to associate 10 SC judges as an integral part of the
National River Network Authority.

Successful interlinking projects in the world :

Some of the successful projects of interlinking of rivers have been mentioned as below:
a) Lesotho Highland Water Project, Africa : It is the largest interbasin and transboundry
water project in Saharan Africa. It has 5 phases with series of dams, tunnels and power
stations. Phase 1A, 1B are completed with construction of dams nearing completion. It
has a capacity of diverting 70 m3/s
b) State Water Project , California: The project has 22 dams and reservoirs, 444 mile
aqueduct pumps from Oroville dam over Tehachapi mountain to California. The project
utilises 30% water for errigation in San Joaquin valley & 70% for residences and
industries in California.
c) Wanjiazhai Water Transfer Project,China : It is located in North China province. The
project shall benefit 40% of Chinas land, 45% of population which have annual deficit of
40BCM. It has 5 pumping stations and 4 aqueducts.

Conclusion :
River -Linking is not a hypothetical concept. One should not feel that interlinking
of rivers is only a gigantic process where only a lot of resource and money needs
mobilisation. The project also calls for anticipation of all possible circumstances that
would or may arise. The project of national river linking should be planned and executed
on big scale but with systematic managerial efforts and engineering acumen.
This project seems to be a feasible solution to end water as well as energy crisis.
The project of river-linking can take India to the galaxy of developed country.

References :
1. National Water Policy, published by Government of India, Sept. 1987
2. Journal of Indian Water Works Association ( IWWA) Oct.-Dec. 2003.
3. Inter-States River Disputes : A.K. Sinha
4. Kalyan Raman S., National River Network Lecture Notes issued at Indian Water
Works Association, Nagpur Centre on 20 March 2003.

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