Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Friday visited the site of the lakhwar Multi-purpose project in Uttarakhand which is supposed to provide water to Haryana but has been a non starter as of now.
From the project site, Khattar called Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti regarding sanction of funds and got positive response.
The construction of the project was discontinued in 1992 for want of funds. It was in 1976 that the Planning Commission of India had accorded approval for construction of this dam for supplying water to the states of Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan for irrigation, domestic and industrial purposes.
The work to construct the project was started in 1987 and by the year 1992 only 30 per cent of the work was completed. The Central Government declared this project as a national project in 2008. The Upper River Yamuna Board was constituted by the Central government to distribute the waters of river Yamuna among the beneficiary states.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by these beneficiary states in 1994. According to the MoU, Haryana’s share of water was fixed at 47.82 per cent. Haryana is proposed to get 1.22 lakh acre feet additional water from lakhwar dam.
The lakhwar Multi-purpose project would generate 612.93 million units of electricity annually. The project would help in checking floods and controlled water would flow in the river.
A sum of Rs392 crore have so far been spent on the construction of this project. The expected cost of water component of this project is Rs2578.23 crore, on the basis of prices in the year 2012.The Central Government would bear 90 per cent of the expected expenditure of the project. All sanctions, except that of funds, concerning the Central Government have been received.