GULBARGA: As against the planned irrigation potential of 35 lakh hectares in major and medium irrigation projects in all the river basins in the State, over 21.97 lakh hectares had been brought under irrigation and the Government plans to spend another Rs. 10,543 crore on the 55 ongoing major and medium irrigation projects to realise the full potential.

The State has drawn up a master plan to utilise 1,690.30 tmcft of water under the major, medium and minor irrigation projects in the State in all the basins. As per the estimates, the available water in the Krishna Basin was 1,156 tmcft, followed by 408.62 tmcft in the Cauvery Basin, 22.37 tmcft in the Godavari and 103.31 tmcft in other Basins in the State.

As per the estimates prepared by the Water Resources Ministry, the average annual yield of all the rivers in the State was roughly around 3,438 tmcft and the State proposed to utilise 1,690.30 tmcft.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Tuesday that as on March 2006, 42 major and medium irrigation projects were completed at an estimated cost of Rs. 171.95 crore as against the sanctioned cost of Rs. 148.58 crore and another 55 projects were in different stages of completion. The estimated cost of the ongoing projects was Rs. 286.78 crore and of which Rs. 181.35 crore had been spent and Rs. 105.43 crore was required for completing these ongoing projects.

Sources said the Government proposed to take up 19 new major and medium irrigation projects at a cost of Rs. 529.21 crore and so far around Rs. 1.12 crore had been spent.

The investment in the major and medium irrigation up to March 2006 was Rs. 242.72 crore, apart from the investment made in the irrigation projects prior to 1951, before the Plan period.

The State Government had spent Rs. 15,684.48 crore from first to ninth Plans creating an irrigation potential of 19.05 lakh hectares and during the tenth Plan period, Rs. 12,354.29 crore had been invested on major and medium irrigation projects creating an irrigation potential of 2.92 lakh hectares.

Sources said the Government had identified some of the daunting problems, which were responsible for the delay in utilising the available water in the rivers in the State and remedial measures had been initiated to correct the malady. The present level of allocation of funds for irrigation projects was too meagre compared with the outlay required for completion of the ongoing projects. One of the reasons identified for this was taking up too many projects and limited availability of funds, which had resulted in abnormal cost escalation.

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