Centre inks MoU with 6 states for multipurpose Lakhwar project on Yamuna

By India News Stream Correspondent

Aug 28, 2018

New Delhi: The Centre today signed a MoU with chief ministers of six states for the construction of the Rs. 3966.51 crore Lakhwar Multi-Purpose project in the Upper Yamuna Basin which, when operational, will increase water availability in Yamuna
by 65 per cent.

This increase during the lean season between January to April will cater to the water needs of states like Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan besides generating power for Uttarakhand

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Shipping and Road Transport & Highways, who inked the MoU with the six chief ministers here, said the project envisaged long back could not take off as reaching consensus among the states took time.

He, however, expressed happiness that the Government had got this difficult task accomplished now. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje , Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal and their Delhi and Himachal Pradesh counter parts Arvind Kejriwal and Jai Ram Thakur in signed the document for their respective stated.

Mr Gadkari said the project once operational will take care of water needs of Delhi for next 25 years.
He said there was no lack of water in the country but the issue was only its management.

The Lakhwar project envisages construction of a 204 m high concrete dam across river Yamuna near Lohari village in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand with a live storage capacity of 330.66 MCM. This storage will provide irrigation for 33,780 hectares land and availability of 78.83 MCM water for domestic, drinking and industrial use in the six basin states. The project will also generate 300 MW of power. The project is to be executed by M/s Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVL).

Out of the total project cost of Rs. 3966.51 crore, the power component of Rs. 1388.28 crore will be borne totally by the Uttarakhand government. Uttarakhand will also get the benefit of total power generation once the project is complete.

Out of the remaining cost of Rs. 2578.23 crore which form the irrigation and drinking water components, 90% will be borne by the Centre (Rs. 2320.41 crore) and 10% will be divided between the States of Haryana -Rs.123.29 crore (47.82%), Uttar Pradesh/ Uttarakhand -Rs. 86.75 crore (33.65%), Rajasthan-Rs. 24.08 crore (9.34%), NCT Delhi -Rs. 15.58 crore (6.04%) and Himachal Pradesh -Rs. 8.13 crore (3.15%).

Storage created as a result of implementation of Lakhwar project will be shared by the basin States in proportion to their overall annual allocations as given in the mother MoU signed between the six states on 12.05.1994. Allocation of water from storage created by Lakhwar Dam Reservoir will be regulated by UYRB as per this MoU. Except the sharing of stored water all other resultant economic benefits including generation of hydropower due to construction of the dam are assigned to the State of Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are the six Upper Yamuna Basin states. Upper Yamuna refers to the stretch of River Yamuna from its origin to the Okhla Barrage in Delhi. The six states had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 12th May 1994 regarding allocation of surface flow of River Yamuna. The agreement had recognized the need to create storage facilities in Upper Yamuna Basin to conserve and utilize the monsoon flows of the river in a regulated manner. The MoU had also laid down the interim seasonal allocation of the annual utilizable flow of the river pending creation of the storage facilities.

Besides Lakhwar Multi-Purpose project, two other major projects are being envisaged in the Upper Yamuna reaches which are Kishau Multi-Purpose project and Renukaji Multi-Purpose project. A fourth project is the Vyasi project, a run-of-the-river scheme under which a concrete dam across River Yamuna is being constructed near Vyasi village in Dehradun district. The Vyasi project is scheduled for commissioning by December 2018.