The 'lifeline of Gujarat' - Narmada canal network will be fully commissioned by December 2019 after the completion of construction work on the remaining minor and sub-minor canals as well as pipeline connecting farms, the Deputy Chief Minister, Nitin Patel, had said here on Wednesday.
According to Patel, most of the canal network has already been completed barring a few areas, where structural works are under progress.
Addressing presspersons, Patel said that the Centre has allocated Rs 730.90 crore as grant for Narmada Canal network under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme for 2018-19.
"Narmada canal network is considered among 99 irrigation schemes in the country to be completed on a priority basis. The Centre has also allocated a loan of Rs 1,484 crore under the Long Term Irrigation Fund at a reduced interest rate of 6 per cent and with a repayment period of 15 years. This will further boost the progress on Narmada canal network development," the Chief Minister said.
Patel further said: "We have set a target to complete the entire canal network by the end of 2019. This will include structural work on canals and pipeline network. The work is nearing completion at most places, barring the areas where there are legal hurdles in land acquisition. As a solution to that, we are setting up pipeline network so that land acquisition issue doesn't arise," he added.
As on July 2018, out of the total planned canal network of 71,748 kilometres, 59,878 km had been completed. While all the main canals are in place, there are about 100 km of branch canal work being undertaken. Also, about 259 km of distributaries, about 2,002 km of minor canals and about 9,491 km of sub-minor canals are to be completed. About 2,569 water users associations were registered to use the Narmada water.
Commenting on the current Status of water availability from Narmada canal, Nitin Patel said that the Narmada dam has a current water level of 121 meters, while monsoon withdrawal is still a month away.
"From here onwards, all additional water inflow into the dam will be stored in the dam and utilised for drinking and irrigation purpose. It seems that there is one more month to go for withdrawal of the monsoon. Hence, we can expect some more water inflow in Narmada dam. The State has adequate drinking water availability for a year now," Patel said.
Earlier there were concerns on water availability as the reservoir levels dipped alarmingly with scanty rains in the regions of North Gujarat and Kutch.