The State Government has set a target of providing irrigation facilities in 10 lakh hectares of arable land in the next five years at an estimated cost of `18,000 crore.
A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level review meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here on Friday.
While the State now has irrigation facilities for 54 per cent (33.12 lakh hectares) of its total land, the Government has prepared a blueprint to provide irrigation to another 10 lakh hectares in the next five years, sources said.
It was revealed at the meeting that while a target was set to provide irrigation facilities to 2.04 lakh hectares of land in the current fiscal, only 32,670 hectares has been covered by September 30. The target to provide irrigation to 35 per cent land in each block has fallen short by 40 per cent. Out of the total 314 blocks, 189 have been provided with the facilities so far.
To achieve the target of irrigating 10 lakh hectares, it was decided to set up 10,000 shallow bore wells, 1.25 lakh deep bore wells, 5,000 micro lift irrigation projects, 6,000 community lift irrigation projects, 156 minor irrigation projects, 175 medium irrigation projects and 14 mega irrigation projects.
The Chief Minister asked the concerned authorities to implement these projects in a way so as to ensure round-the-year irrigation facilities.
The meeting also discussed the steps taken on the various ongoing irrigation projects funded by the Central Government, NABARD, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the State Government, strengthening of river embankments and pre-assessment and forecast of floods.
Among others, Development Commissioner AP Padhi, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Pradeep Jena and Special Secretary Chitra Arumugam and other senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.