The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday sanctioned the fourth administrative approval to the Gosikhurd National Project, taking the total cost of the project to Rs 25,972.69 crore. This project will benefit 1,96,600 hectares of area in Nagpur, Chandrapur and Bhandara districts.
Gosikhurd Irrigation Project was approved in March 1983 to create irrigation potential in 2,50,800 hectares annually in Bhandara, Nagpur and Chandrapur districts. The project comprised construction of earthen dam and spillway, Left Bank Canal, Right Bank Canal, nine Lift Irrigation Schemes and augmentation of the existing Asolamendha tank. The project was declared as a ‘National Irrigation Project’ by the Government of India in February 2009.
The project was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. The original cost of the project was then pegged at Rs 372 crore, which was later increased to Rs 5,659 crore. The Central Water Commission gave approval for the revised cost of Rs 7,778 crore in 2007. In March 2012, the project cost was again hiked to Rs 13,739 crore and then to Rs 18,500 crore in September 2016.
The Gosikhurd National Project is being implemented by the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation. This multipurpose project is being implemented at Gosikhurd (T Pavani) on the Wainganga river in the Wainganga sub-basin of the Godavari basin. This is a multipurpose project for irrigation, drinking water, industrial water supply and fisheries and hydropower generation.
The irrigation area of Nagpur, Chandrapur and Bhandara districts will benefit from this project through open canal distribution, lift irrigation and closed pipe distribution. This project is included in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchhan Yojana. In order to complete this national project in East Vidarbha on time, the expenditure of this project was approved as the fourth revised administrative approval in the cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Nod for four-lane road
The cabinet also approved the construction of a four-lane elevated road and a parallel four-lane road from Talegaon to Chakan on the 53-km state highway of Talegaon-Chakan-Shikrapur in Pune district. In addition, a six-lane road from Chakan to Shikrapur was also cleared. The government will spend Rs 4206.88 crore for these projects.
