National Perspective Plan (NPP) for development of water resources was formulated by Government of India in 1980. 30 link projects (16 under Peninsular Component & 14 under Himalayan Component) have been identified under NPP. National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has been entrusted with the work of inter-linking of rivers under NPP. Details and current status of the proposals for inter-State linking of rivers under the Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) programme are furnished at Annexure.
The Government is pursuing the ILR program by building consensus amongst the Party States. An ILR project would reach the implementation stage once agreement amongst Party States is reached on water sharing and all requisite statutory clearances for its implementation are obtained. The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the first link project implementation of which has begun under NPP. The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) amongst the Government of India and Governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for the joint implementation of the project was signed on 22.03.2021. Subsequently, Government of India approved the implementation of KBLP in December, 2021 with an estimated cost of Rs 44,605 crore (year 2020-21 price level) with central support of Rs 39,317 crore through a Special Purpose Vehicle viz; Ken Betwa Link Project Authority (KBLPA). The project is planned to be completed in period of 8 years. However, in case of other ILR projects, it would be difficult to assign a time line for their completion, as it is dependent upon the Party States to reach a consensus on water sharing and other issues.
Recently, looking at the scarce water availability in the State of Rajasthan, the Special Committee for Interlinking of Rivers (SCILR) in its 20th meeting held in December, 2022 in New Delhi has approved the proposal of integration of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) with the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link (a link under NPP) and the Modified Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (PKC), duly integrated with ERCP, to be a part of NPP of interlinking of rivers in the country. The project envisages mitigating the water needs, particularly the drinking water needs, in 13 districts of Rajasthan and 7 districts of Madhya Pradesh.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
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