The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has been undertaking interlinking of rivers for development of water resources; and in the process, the feasibility report (FR) of Mahanadi-Godavari river interlinking is completed.

Similarly, the Subarnarekha-Mahanadi interlinking feasibility report and the Subarnarekha-Damodar interlinking feasibility report are also ready, informed Union Minister of State of Jal Shakti Ratan Lal Kataria in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

He said the Mahanadi (Manibhadra)-to-Godavari (Dowlaiswaram) link would cover Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The Subarnarekha-Mahanadi Link is concerned to West Bengal and Odisha. The National Perspective Plan (NPP) prepared by the Union Government for water resource development envisages inter-basin transfer of water. This is done for transferring water from water-surplus basins to water-deficit basins.

Under the NPP, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has identified 30 links, of which 16 are under Peninsular Component and 14 under Himalayan Component.

 The Mahanadi-Godavari link is under Peninsular Component, for which the FR is completed.The Minister said the programme of interlinking of rivers is carried out in a consultative manner; and efforts have been made for building consensus among the concerned States.

He said the Godavari-Cauvery link project is planned in two phases. Phase I relates to identifying the surplus water in the Godavari basin without affecting the interests of the co-basin States and transferring these waters up to Cauvery through the Godavari-Cauvery link project. Linking Brahmaputra, Ganga, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi and Godavari would be taken up in Phase II, thus enriching the Phase I with suitable modifications.

A National Task Force for Interlinking Rivers has been constituted after consultations among the States. In the meantime, the Godavari-Cauvery Draft Detailed Project Report (DPR) is ready considering the Phase I option only.

While the FRs and DPRs are ready, a decision on execution has not been taken as the river interlinking projects have not reached the stage of execution, said the Minister. So, no funds are allocated for the projects, admitted he.