October 07, 2008

INR 7,777 crore approved for Gosikhurd irrigation project

Technical Advisory Committee of the Central Water Commission has recently approved the revised budget of INR 7,777 crore for Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation's Gosikhurd irrigation project in Maharashtra.

The proposed project, has encountered several roadblocks in the past few years due to lack of funds, so the centre had recently declared Gosikhurd as a national asset and decided to provide nearly 90% of the funds for the project and the state government will share the rest 10% amount. The original estimated cost of the Gosikhurd project was INR 372 crore in 1982, while in 1988, the cost had gone up to INR 461 crore and in 1995 it rose to INR 2,091 crore.

The project envisages construction of an 11.35 kilometer long earthen dam with gated spillway across Wainganga River near Gosikhurd village. The Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation has spent about INR 2,464 crore till December 7th 2008 on the project that will develop irrigation potential for 250,000 hectare of land in Nagpur, Bhandara and Chandrapur districts.

Currently, about 97% of dam work is complete, raise of the embankment is in progress, 90% concrete work of spillway is complete and 33 gates have been installed, while the ancillary works are underway. The project also includes four lift irrigation schemes and generation of 24 MW power.