The Jammu and Kashmir Government has written a letter to the Government of Punjab seeking time-frame for release of water from prestigious Shahpur Kandi dam project on River Ravi as reportedly pondage of the reservoir has not reached the maximum level so far.
Meanwhile, the Irrigation and Flood Control Department of the Union Territory is required to strengthen and upgrade the existing canal system for efficient water distribution and maximizing irrigation potential in Kathua and Samba districts.
Reliable sources said that concerned authorities in the Government of Union Territory have sent a letter to the Chief Engineer Canals of Punjab Government seeking to know the latest status of the pondage of the dam of Shahpur Kandi project as reportedly level of the water continues to be the same as was in the month of January this year.
“Unless water is stored up to the maximum capacity of the dam J&K cannot get its due share of water from the project as such concerned authorities have also asked the Chief Engineer Canals of Punjab to convey the time-frame about release of water so that necessary arrangements for distribution are made well in advance”, sources further said.
As per the agreement, J&K will get due share of 1150 cusec of water from River Ravi and the same will provide irrigation facility to 32173 hectares of land in Kathua and Samba districts. For this, gravity-fed irrigation technique, which is simpler than the lift technique, will be used by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department.
“J&K has come to know that a committee constituted by the Government of Punjab has yet not submitted report on the compliance of the parameters of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), which otherwise is imperative before resorting to full storage of dam”, sources informed.
It is pertinent to mention here that Irrigation Department of Government of Punjab has completed civil works of the Shahpur Kandi dam project, which was declared as National Project by the Union Ministry of Water Resources in the month of February 2008, while as electro-mechanical works have been carried out by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.
The power plant, which is part of this prestigious project, is likely to be completed by ending this year. The plant will have seven units—six units of 33 Mega Watts each and one unit of 8 MW. The 206 Mega Watts power plant will generate 1042 million units of electricity annually and J&K will also get its share from that.
Meanwhile, Irrigation and Flood Control Department of J&K is required to strengthen and upgrade the existing canal system for efficient water distribution and maximizing irrigation potential in Kathua and Samba districts once released from the Shahpur Kandi dam.
“The existing canal system doesn’t have the capacity to bear the flow of such a huge volume of water as what to talk of distributaries even not much attention was paid towards the main canal”, sources said, adding “now a plan has been chalked out to strengthen the weak spots on war footing basis till some project is sanctioned for the entire canal system”.
They disclosed that a project was prepared for funding under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation but the same was not accepted by the Central Water Commission in view of the guidelines, which state that funding for the same project can be permitted only 10 years after the utilization of earlier financial assistance.
For this canal system, a project under AIBP was sanctioned in the year 2010 and the same was completed only in 2022 with focus mainly on strengthening the mechanical part, sources said, adding “now, some other source of funding is required to be identified for strengthening of canal and its distributaries so as to obtain maximum benefit of water to be released from Shahpur Kandi dam”. (Excelsior)
