“ INTERLINKING OF INDIAN RIVERS”

ABSTRACT

At present, India suffers a lot due to inequality in water access across the diverse

eco-regions. To satisfy this, interlinking major rivers of country seems to appeal to the

popular imagination. The project promises to be most massive and most controversial

infrastructure, development that might ever be undertaken. Though the cost of

implementation is high, this is only a option available to solve water crisis with

reasonable returns.

Interlinking of major rivers not only break India’s water problem but also provide

cheap surface transport throughout the year as navigational canals, hydropower

generation, flood control, irrigation and drinking water.

This paper deals at length, the idea of linking canals to divert surplus water from

some selected rivers to water short region. Also a deal with envisages networking of

major rivers through construction of two major contour canals, one in Himalayan and

other in peninsular region. This project has triple function of impounding, transmitting

and distributing of floodwater among various river basins. This ambitious project has a

potential of capturing India into the galaxy of developed country. This project is

acclaimed to be technically feasible and economically viable from techno-economic

angle.

The conclusion of this paper will give a clear idea about feasibility of networking

of major rivers, which is the major solution for India’s water problem.

INTRODUCTION

According to National Water Policy (1987) adopted by Govt. of India, “water

should be made available to water short areas by transfer from other areas including

transfers from one river basin to another based on national perspective after taking into

account requirements of the areas or basins.”

Under this plan, it has envisaged two components, namely the Himalayan and

the Peninsular. The project considered transmission of water mostly by gravity and

through dams and storages. Only at one place the water needs lifting by 120m. The

total estimate of length of river links and canals will exceed 5000 kms. of waterways. In

addition to this, many minor irrigation works and storage facilities will be constructed in

all States of the country as part of the plan. Thus the river-links cover nearly all states.

The scope of the project may be extended in some of the States like Maharashtra to

bring more land under irrigation. This paper aims at discussing the proposed interbasin

water transfer links, benefits of the project, financing and management of project and

overall feasibility of the project.

NEED OF THE PROJECT

India is placed at seventh position as far as the area is concerned. Even though

Russia has largest area, it has only 26% arable (cultivated) land. But India is blessed

with arable land, which is about 55%. But what is about irrigable land? India has

5,60,000 hectares of irrigable land which requires water. Irrigated land increases yield

per acre four times than that unirrigated land. If the water is made available for total land

India will place in the galaxy of developed countries.

The average annual precipitation is 400 Million Hectares Meter (MHM).Out of this

70MHM evaporates, 115 MHM percolates and 215 MHM is runoff.A proper planning

should be made to arrest the runoff, which is about 215 MHM. This problem can be

tackled by arresting a large chunk of water through national river-linking program.

National rivers linking project: -

The project is prepared by NWTA which involves water transmission mostly by

gravity and through dams and storages. The objectives of project are to workout basin

wise surpluses, deficits and possibilities of interlinking them and to make the country

permanent drought –proof, especially mitigation of floods of rivers Ganga, Bramhaputra

and Mahanadi. Under this plan it has envisaged two components they are Himalayan

and Peninsular

Interbasin water transfer river links.

The Himalayan Component This component consist of 14 links with two systems,

one with 12 interdependable links and another with 2 independent links (Table 1 and Fig

1). Dams will be constructed on tributaries of Gnaga and Brahmaputra in India, Nepal

and Bhutan. It will link Brahmaputra with Ganga and Ganga with the Mahanadi,

benefiting the states of west Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. It also

envisages linking tributaries of Ganga on east which have surplus water, to the

tributaries on west, benefiting the states of U.P. , Uttaranchal, Haryana, Rajasthan and

Gujarat. The Himalayan component would provide drought mitigation to 17 lakh

hectares. Flood control of Ganga and Brahmaputra basins by construction of dams,

irrigation to 22 lakh hectares and generation of around 30,000 MW of hydropower.

Flood peaks are expected to reduce by about 20-30%. It would also provide the

necessary discharge for augmentation of flows at Farakka required to flush the Kolkata

port and the inland navigation facilities across the country.

Himalayan rivers development envisages construction of storage reservoirs on

the principal tributaries of Ganga and Brahmaputra in India, Nepal and Bhutan, along

with interlinking canal systems to transfer surplus flows of the eastern tributaries of

Ganga to the west, apart from linking of the main Brahmaputra and its tributaries with

Ganga and Ganga with Mahanadi.

Table :- Proposed Interbasing Water Transfer Links Himalayan Component Peninsular

component

1. Brahmaputra -Ganga (MSTG) 16 Godavari ( Inchampalli low dam)

2. Kosi- Ghagra - Krishna ( Nagarjuna Sagar tail pond)

3. Gandak - Ghagra 17.Godavari (Inchampalli) - Krishna

4. Ghagra - Yamuna ( Nagarjun Sagar)

5. Sarda - Yamuna 18. Godavari ( Polavaram) - Krishna 6. Yamuna - Rajasthan

( Vijaywada) 7. Rajasthan - Sabarmati 19. Krishna ( Almatti ) - Pennar

8. Chunar - Sone barrage 20. Krishna ( Srisailam ) - Pennar 9. Sone dam - Southern

tributaries of Ganga 21. Krishna ( Nagarjun Sagar) - Pennar 10. Ganga - Damodar -

Subernarekha ( Somsila) 11. Subernarekha - Mahanadi 22. Pennar - Cauvery (Grand

anicut)

12. Kosi - Mechi 23.Cauvery (Kattalai) - Vajgai - Gundar. 13. Farkka - Sunderbans 24.

Ken - Betwa 14. Brahmaputra (ALT) - Ganga ( JTF) 25. Parbati - Kalisindh - Chambal

15. Mahanadi (Manibhadra) - Godavari( Dowlaiswaram) 26. Par - Tapi - Narmada 27.

Damanganga - Pinjal 28. Bedti - Varda 29. Netravati - Hemavati 30. Pamba -

Achankovil - Vaippar

The peninsular component: -

This component consists of16 links (Table 1) transmitting surplus water from

Mahanadi and Godavari to deficit basins of Krishana , Pennar and Cauvery benefiting

areas in Orrisa , Andhrapradesh ,Karnataka , Tamilnadu and Pondechery. Broadly the

peninsular component is divided into four major parts as follows:

1) Interlinking of Mahanadi-Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery rivers and building storages at

potential sites in these basins: This is the major interlinking of the river systems where

surplus from the Mahanadi and Godavari are intended to be transferred to the deficient

areas in south.

2) Interlinking of west-flowing rivers, North of Mumbai and South of Tapi: This scheme

envisages construction of as many optimal storages as possible on these streams and

interlinking them. The scheme provides water supply canal to the metropolitan areas of

Mumbai. It provides irrigation to the coastal areas in Maharashtra.

3) Interlinking of Ken–Chambal rivers: The scheme provides water grid for

Madhayapradesh andUttarpradesh and interlinking canal backed by as many storages

as possible.

4) Diversion of other west flowing rivers: Heavy rainfall on the western side of the

western Ghats runs down numerous streams which take their flow into the Arabian sea.

Construction of an interlinking canal system backed up by adequate storages could be

planned to meet all requirements of Konkan and Kerala.

The Peninsular component is expected to provide additional irrigation of about 13

Million Hectares and is expected to generate about 4 million KW of power.

Quantum of work involved in the project

As we said that this is a mega project, it will definately involve the huge quantities

in the sence of labour and materials.

This project will include about 55890 m.cu.m. and concrete and steel require

quantities are 3507m.cu.m. and 30 m. tonnes respectively. It will also require nearly

9953 crore days of unskilled labours, 360 m. days of semiskill labour and 1.25 m. days

of skilled labours. As we look are looking towards this quantity of labour task force it will

produce highly employment potential.

Benefits of the project:

The river linking project will help to add 34000 MW gdenration of hydro-

electricity. Advantages of the project are flood and draught control, improved

agriculture, alternative transport, higher GDP growth (4%), decentralisation of cities,

social benefits, boost in fisheries and tourism. Major environmental profits from the

project are improved public health due to water supply sanitation, reduced pressure on

stressed supply system, reduced use of local water for irrigation, reduced pressure on

overdrafted ground water and reduced pollution in some of river.

Plausibility of the project:

1. Hydropower genration:

The biggest bonus of this project is the production of electricity. This project will add

34000MW of hydroelectricity. The cost of production of hydroelectricity is Rs. 18 to 20

crores per generation of MW. To produce 34000MW of electricity, Rs. 6.8 lakh crores of

money is required. This means all this is bonus ones the project (costing Rs. 5.6 lakhs

crores) is ready.

2. Irrigation:

This project has a potential to irrigate another 3.5 crores hectare-metre. Irrigation

has genral norms for minor irrigation at Rs.30000 per hectare. The B/C ratio should be

not less than 1. This means if the cost of irrigation of one hectare is Rs. 30000, one

must get an income of Rs. 30000 out of it. When one makes an expense of Rs. 5.6

lakhs crores and irrigates 3.5 crore hectare-metre come to about Rs.16000 only, which

is about half of present norms. This is definately a big advantage.

3. Human Resources :

India will surpassed China in 2035 as far as population is concerned. If we look

at our awesome population from resource point of view, it will be the biggest advantage.

And this human resource can be very well utilised in project like river linking.

4. Employement :

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India is Rs. 22 lakhs crores. There are 64%

labour force in agriculture, 72% people depend on agriculture, but only 1% student go to

this important sector as far as higher education is concerned. There is no

unemployement in agriculture sector but if we properly rearrange on our resources we

can definately go ahead of other countries with the help of this megaproject.

The major benefits of this project are, we can cover 56 million hectare arid

regions. We also get 30000 millon cu.m. While looking towards these major benefits we

can not negotiate the another useful things which we get, that are 38245 Km extra

roads and 1.2 million hectre of fresh water fishing area.

Financing and Management of the Project :

Economists have expressed their concern regarding the estimated huge cost of

the project. Even though the cost of project is large, it is about 25% of national GDP.

Kalyan Raman (2003) discussed innovative ways of financing for the project. He

proposed “Nine crores acres of additional arable land with assured irrigation shall be

created. At a very conservative estimate of Rs.1 lakh per acre, the project cost can be

obtained upfront, i.e. Rs. 9 lakh crores.

The ultimate beneficiaries may be issued loans guaranteed by ICICI and other

financial instituations with a five year grace period and repayment period of 20 years. It

may be insured that the distribution of land to the beneficiaries is handled transparently

and justly. He further suggested to associate 10 SC judges as an integral part of the

National River Network Authority.

Successful interlinking projects in the world :

Some of the successful projects of interlinking of rivers have been mentioned as below:

a) Lesotho Highland Water Project, Africa : It is the largest interbasin and transboundry

water project in Saharan Africa. It has 5 phases with series of dams, tunnels and power

stations. Phase 1A, 1B are completed with construction of dams nearing completion. It

has a capacity of diverting 70 m3/s

b) State Water Project , California: The project has 22 dams and reservoirs, 444 mile

aqueduct pumps from Oroville dam over Tehachapi mountain to California. The project

utilises 30% water for errigation in San Joaquin valley & 70% for residences and

industries in California.

c) Wanjiazhai Water Transfer Project,China : It is located in North China province. The

project shall benefit 40% of China’s land, 45% of population which have annual deficit of

40BCM. It has 5 pumping stations and 4 aqueducts.

Conclusion :

River -Linking is not a hypothetical concept. One should not feel that interlinking

of rivers is only a gigantic process where only a lot of resource and money needs

mobilisation. The project also calls for anticipation of all possible circumstances that

would or may arise. The project of national river linking should be planned and executed

on big scale but with systematic managerial efforts and engineering acumen.

This project seems to be a feasible solution to end water as well as energy crisis.

The project of river-linking can take India to the galaxy of developed country.

References :

1. “National Water Policy”, published by Government of India, Sept. 1987

2. Journal of Indian Water Works Association ( IWWA) Oct.-Dec. 2003.

3. Inter-States River Disputes : A.K. Sinha

4. Kalyan Raman S., “ National River Network” Lecture Notes issued at Indian Water

Works Association, Nagpur Centre on 20 March 2003.