With Nepal’s ‘non-cooperative’ attitude playing China card on the long pending Pancheshwar dam project at the confluence of the Mahakali and the Saryu rivers in Uttarakhand’s Champawat district, where the Mahakali river also marks international border between the two neighbours, the Government of India is now contemplating to construct a dam on the Saryu River, a major tributary of the Mahakali, which flows completely in the Indian territory.
It may be recalled that a proposal to construct the Pancheshwar dam at the confluence of the two rivers in Champawat was made in 1967. As the officials concerned have maintained to start any work on the said Pancheshwar Dam project, consent of the Nepal Government was mandatory. But, as they have maintained, an agreement has not yet been materialised during the past so many years commensurate with India’s interests.
Therefore, keeping in view India’s growing energy needs and requirement of water for both agriculture and drinking purposes in the region, now the Government of India has seriously decided to construct the Chamgarh dam project on the Saryu River which is about 11.5 km towards north-west from the confluence of the Mahakali and Saryu rivers and 3 km downward from the Ghat motor bridge on the Tanakpur- Pithoragarh Road.
It is worth mention here that when it did not receive any cooperation from the Nepal Government, the Government of India had taken a decision to complete the survey of the proposed Chamgarh dam project in 1990 and the Central Electricity Authority then also announced to grant Rs 100 lakh for the survey work, as the officials concerned informed.
In the meanwhile, initially a proposal with an estimated cost of Rs 568.00 crore for construction of the Chamgarh dam project, was sent to the Government of India in 1977. Subsequently, after resurvey of the availability of water in the Saryu River and other construction and labour expenditures, a revised proposal of the said dam project with an estimated cost wroth Rs 1,251.21 crore was submitted to the Government of India in 1986, as the officials concerned informed.
At the same time, initially an amount of Rs four crore was allocated for research work on this proposed Chamgarh dam project, said D C Singh, Chief Engineer, the State Irrigation Department (north), while talking to The Pioneer, in an exclusive interview. However, an amount of Rs 2.67 crore was spent on the research work on this said project till 2005 and about 50 per cent research works were done on this proposed Chamgarh dam project. On account of scarcity of fund, rest of the research worked could not be completed.
Now with a view to complete the research works on this project, we have submitted a proposal demanding Rs 10 crore for completing the rest of the research works, he added. With about 400 mw electricity generation capacity as is estimated, the said dam will serve many other purposes like irrigation once it is completed. However, the Chamgarh dam will be smaller in size than the long pending Pancheshwar dam project. Actual size of this Chamgarh dam project will be finalised only when the survey is completed.