Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Saryu Nahar National Project, constructed at a cost of Rs 9,800 crore, in Balrampur on Saturday.
The project will benefit around five million farmers in nine districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal). Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with other ministers will be present at the Friday’s function.
After the inauguration of the project, the prime minister will also address a public meeting around 1 pm.
Balrampur is the political ground of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee from where he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in his political career in 1957. While he lost from Balrampur in 1962, he managed to emerge victorious again in 1967.
A top official said on Friday that the work on the project started in 1978 but due to lack of continuity of budgetary support, interdepartmental coordination, and adequate monitoring, it got delayed and could not see its completion even after nearly four decades.
Consequently, in 2016, the project was brought under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana with the target to complete it in a time-bound manner. The renewed focus on the project has resulted in the project being completed in only about four years.
The Saryu Nahar National Project has been constructed at a total cost of more than Rs 9,800 crore, out of which more than Rs 4,600 crore was provisioned in the last four years. The project also involves the interlinking of five rivers -- Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga, and Rohini -- to ensure optimum usage of water resources of the region.
Once complete, it will provide water for irrigation to over 14 lakh hectares of land and benefit about 29 lakh farmers of over 6200 villages in eastern UP districts like Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, and Maharajganj.
The farmers of the region, the worst sufferers of the delay in project, will now immensely benefit from the upgraded irrigation potential and will be able to grow crops on a larger scale and maximise the agri-potential of the region.