Govt fast tracks six river linking projects

The FM in her Budget allocations has announced ₹44,000 crore for Ken Betwa River project and also proposed to link five other rivers. Draft DPRs have already been finalized and the government will provide support for the implementation after a consensus among the beneficiary states. The rivers included Godavari-Krishna, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery, Damanganga-Pinjal and Par-Tapi-Narmada.

Krishna, the fourth largest river in India, originates in Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and flows through Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Cauvery originates in Kodagu and flows through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Penna originates in Chikkaballapura and flows through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Godavari which is the third-largest river in India originates in Nashik and flows through Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The Damanganga-Pinjal river linking aims to divert surplus water from the Damanganga basin to provide domestic water for Mumbai city. The Par-Tapi-Narmada project proposes to provide water to doubt-prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra by diverting excess water from seven reservoirs in the Western Ghats in North Maharashtra and south Gujarat.