Abstract
The gravity of concern about interlinking rivers (ILR) in India is huge and quite evidently has been associated with acrimonious debates. While various dispensations in the new millennium have generally been in favour of this mega-scale infrastructure project, no other infrastructure development project has perhaps received so much flak from the scientific community and the NGOs than the ILR project. Opposing discourses started flowing in ever since Suresh Prabhu took up the chairmanship of the task force of ILR in 2002—a position which he relinquished in 2006. The idea of interlinking is old enough to have invited the debate even in the last century. However, neither adequate scientific knowledge, nor appropriate technological know-how existed during that time to really take the debate to the public forum. The idea of linking rivers of India has its roots in the thoughts of Visveswarya, the stalwart engineer of yore. The idea was further extended by K.L. Rao, the legendary irrigation minister of India, and Captain Dastur, a pilot. Both Rao and Dastur envisaged the Ganga-Cauvery Link Canal and the Garland canals, respectively (Fig. 1). Rao felt that the solution to India’s water problems lie in transferring water from “water surplus” to “water deficit” basins. Even today, many believe that “robbing Peter to pay Paul” (RPBP) is a great idea to resolve the water problems.
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Notes
- 1.
The sub-basins comprising left-bank of the Ganga (bulk of which will be linked) like the Ghaghara, Gandak and Kosi with the sub-basins of the right bank tributaries and distributaries like the Yamuna, Son and Bhagirathi/Hooghli, have a much higher PUWC per capita than the average for the entire Ganga Basin and also much higher average annual volume of discharge than their right bank counterparts.
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ANNEXURE
ANNEXURE
Peninsular Component | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sl. No. | Name | States concerned | States benefited | Annual irrigation (Lakh ha) | Domestic and industrial supply (MCM) | Hydro-power (MW) | Status |
1 | Mahanadi (Manibhadra)- Godavari (Dowlaiswaram) link | Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, & Chattisgarh, | Andhra Pradesh & Orissa | 0.91+3.52 =4.43 | 802 | 445 | Feasibility report completed |
2 | Godavari (Inchampalli)- Krishna (Pulichintala) link | Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka &Chattisgarh, | Telangana & Andhra Pradesh | 1.09+5.04 =6.13 | 413 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
3 | Godavari (Inchampalli)- Krishna (Nagarjunasagar) link | -do- | Telangana | 2.87 | 237 | 975 | Feasibility report completed |
4 | Godavari (Polavaram)- Krishna (Vijayawada) link | Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, & Chattisgarh | Andhra Pradesh | 5.82 | 162 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
5 | Krishna (Almatti)- Pennar link | -do- | Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka | 1.90+0.68 =2.58 | 56 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
6 | Krishna (Srisailam)- Pennar link | Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Telangana | -- | -- | -- | 17 | Feasibility report completed |
7 | Krishna (Nagarjunasagar)- Pennar (Somasila) link | Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka, | -do- | 5.81 | 124 | 90 | Feasibility report completed |
8 | Pennar (Somasila)- Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link | Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala & Puducherry | Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry | 0.49+4.36 +0.06 =4.91 | 1105 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
9 | Cauvery (Kattalai)- Vaigai - Gundar link | Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala & Puducherry | Tamil Nadu | 3.38 | 185 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
10 | Ken-Betwa link a) Ken-Betwa Link Phase-I b) Ken-Betwa link Phase-II | Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh - do- | Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh | 2.66 + 3.69 =6.35 0.99 | 496 | 78 | DPR Phase-I completed in April 2010 & DPR Phase-II completed in January 2014. |
11 | Parbati-Kalisindh- Chambal link | Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Uttar Pradesh (UP requested to be consulted during consensus building ) | Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan | *Alt.I: 2.05+0.25 =2.30 (Alt.II : 1.77+0.43 =2.20) | 13.2 | -- | Feasibility report completed |
12 | Par-Tapi-Narmada link | Maharashtra & Gujarat | Gujarat | 2.32 | 76 | 22 | DPR completed in August, 2015 |
13 | Damanganga- Pinjal link (As per DPR ) | Maharashtra & Gujarat | Maharashtra (only water supply to Mumbai) | -- | 895 | -- | DPR completed in March 2014 |
14 | Bedti-Varda link | Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka | Karnataka | 0.60 | -- | 4 | Pre-feasibility report completed |
15 | Netravati- Hemavati link | Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Kerala | Karnataka | 0.34 | -- | -- | Pre-feasibility report completed |
16 | Pamba- Achankovil-Vaippar link | Kerala & Tamil Nadu, | Tamil Nadu | 0.91 | -- | 508 | Feasibility report completed |
Himalayan Component | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sl. No. | Name of the Link | States/Country concerned | States benefited | Annual irrigation (Lakh ha) | Domestic and industrial supply (MCM) | Hydro- power (MW) | Status |
1. | Manas-Sankosh-Tista-Ganga (M-S-T-G) link | Assam, West Bengal, Bihar & Bhutan | Assam, West Bengal & Bihar | 2.08 + 1.82 + 2.64 = 6.54 | -- | 5287 | FR in progress |
2. | Kosi-Ghaghra link | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh & Nepal | Bihar & Uttar Pradesh | 8.17+ 0.67 + 1.74 (Nepal) = 10.58 | 48 | -- | FR in Indian portion in progress |
3. | Gandak-Ganga link | -do- | Uttar Pradesh | 37.99+2.41(Nepal) = 40.40 | 700 | -- | Draft FR completed (for Indian portion) |
4. | Ghaghra-Yamuna link | -do- | Uttar Pradesh | 25.30 + 1.35 (Nepal) =26.65 | 1391 | 10884 | FR completed (for Indian portion) |
5. | Sarda-Yamuna link | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand & Nepal | Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand | 3.45 + 0.30 = 3.75 | 6250 | 3600 | FR completed (for Indian portion) |
6. | Yamuna-Rajasthan link | Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana & Rajasthan | Haryana & Rajasthan | 0.435 + 2.442 = 2.877 | 57 | -- | Draft FR completed |
7. | Rajasthan-Sabarmati link | -do- | Rajasthan & Gujarat | 5.35 + 2.04 = 7.39 | 282 | -- | Draft FR completed |
8. | Chunar-Sone Barrage link | Bihar & Uttar Pradesh | Bihar & Uttar Pradesh | 0.30 + 0.37 = 0.67 | -- | -- | Draft FR completed |
9. | Sone Dam-Southern Tributaries of Ganga link | Bihar & Jharkhand | Bihar & Jharkhand | 2.99 + 0.08 = 3.07 | 360 | 95 | FR in progress |
10. | Ganga(Farakka)-Damodar- Subernarekha link | West Bengal, Orissa & Jharkhand | West Bengal, Orissa & Jharkhand | 7.63 + 0.30 + 0.55 = 8.47 | 484 | - | Draft FR completed |
11. | Subernarekha-Mahanadi link | West Bengal & Orissa | West Bengal & Orissa | 0.18 + 0.365 = 0.545 | -- | 9 | Draft FR completed |
12. | Kosi-Mechi link | Bihar, West Bengal & Nepal | Bihar | 2.99 + 1.75 (Nepal) = 4.74 | 24 | 3180 | PFR completed. FR to be taken up Entirely lies in Nepal |
13. | Farakka-Sunderbans link | West Bengal | West Bengal | 1.50 | 184 | -- | Draft FR completed |
14. | Jogighopa-Tista-Farakka link (Alternative to M-S-T-G) | -do- | Assam, West Bengal & Bihar | ---- | 216 | 1115 | Alternative to M-S-T-G Link. Not to be taken up. |
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Ghosh, N., Modak, S. (2022). Interlinking of Indian Rivers: Floated Myths, Flouted Realities. In: Mukherjee, A. (eds) Riverine Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87067-6_15
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