Ken-betwa Link Project
It is the first-ever river interconnection project under the National Perspective Plan, and it will connect the Ken River in Madhya Pradesh with the Betwa River in Uttar Pradesh. Both Ken and Betwa are tributaries of the Yamuna river.
There are two phases to the Ken-Betwa Link Project. One of the components, the Daudhan dam complex and its appurtenances, such as the Low Level Tunnel, High Level Tunnel, Ken-Betwa link canal, and Power houses, will be completed during Phase-I. Three components will be built in Phase II: the Lower Orr dam, the Bina complex project, and the Kotha barrage.
HISTORY
The KBLP was first proposed in 1982 by the National Water Development Agency (NWDA), which was then still in the process of forming, as part of its Interlinking of Rivers programme (ILR). The KBLP is part of the central government's plan to connect 30 of India's river basins and build a 12,500-kilometer canal system across the country.
The ILR is a massive infrastructure project aimed at redistributing India's water resources by transporting water from wet to dry areas, similar to a countrywide plumbing system. According to a report on the ILR program's economic impact, areas with "surplus" water would benefit from flood mitigation, while areas with "deficit" water would benefit from increased supply, allowing for greater agricultural productivity and drought protection.
In 1995, the NWDA published a feasibility report for the Ken-Betwa project.
The cost of the Ken-Betwa Link Project is estimated to be Rs 35,111.24 crore at 2017-18 prices, according to another Comprehensive Detailed Project Report.
This engineering-led approach to managing water resources has fallen out of favour in the decades since the scheme was first sketched out. The scientific community has advocated for improving water efficiency and conservation over large infrastructure projects that disrupt river flow, damage ecosystems, and flood vast areas in order to build reservoirs around the world.
Despite the red flags, the NDA government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) revived the KBLP and declared it a national project shortly after taking power in 2014.
In June 2016, Uma Bharti, the then-minister of water resources, reportedly threatened to go on "anshan," or hunger strike, if the environmental clearance for the Ken and Betwa river project was delayed again. In less than four months, the project received two of the three required clearances—environmental and wildlife. In May 2017, it also received stage 1 forest clearance*.
WHICH REGION WILL GET THE BENEFITS OF THE KBLP?
The Ken-Betwa Link Project is located in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region that spans 13 Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh districts.
The project, according to the Jal Shakti Ministry, will benefit the water-scarce region of Bundelkhand, particularly the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri, and Raisen in Madhya Pradesh, and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi, and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh.
In a statement, the Ministry said, "It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that water scarcity does not become an inhibitor for development in the country."
WILL THE PROJECT AFFECT THE PANNA TIGER RESERVE?
According to a written response from Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria, 4,206 ha of the 6,017 ha of forest land coming under the Daudhan dam of the Ken Betwa Link Project is within the core tiger habitat of the Panna Tiger Reserve.
ARE THERE PREVIOUS EXAMPLES OF RIVER-LINKING IN INDIA?
Several river-linking projects have been undertaken in the past. Water transfer from the Periyar basin to the Vaigai basin, for example, was planned as part of the Periyar Project. Other projects, such as Parambikulam Aliyar, Kurnool Cudappah Canal, Telugu Ganga Project, and Ravi-Beas-Sutlej, have also been completed.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON INTERLINKING OF RIVERS IN INDIA
Dr. K L Rao, the then Union Irrigation Minister (earlier the Jal Shakti Ministry was known as Ministry of Irrigation), proposed the idea of transferring surplus water from a river to a water-scarce area in the 1970s.
Dr. Rao, who is also an engineer, proposed that a National Water Grid be built to transport water from water-rich areas to water-scarce areas. Captain Dinshaw J Dastur proposed the Garland Canal to redistribute water from one area to another in a similar way.
The government, on the other hand, did not pursue these two ideas any further. The Ministry of Irrigation prepared a National Perspective Plan (NNP) for water resources development in August 1980, which included inter-basin water transfer in the country.
The NPP was divided into two sections: Himalayan Rivers Development and Peninsular Rivers Development. The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) identified 30 river links based on the NPP, 16 in the Peninsular component and 14 in the Himalayan component. Later, during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the river-linking idea was revived. The Peninsular component includes 16 river linking projects, including the Ken Betwa Link Project.