The Hindu : Karnataka News : Amarja irrigation project nearing completion

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Friday, Dec 17, 2010
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Amarja irrigation project nearing completion

T.V. Sivanandan

Water to be released to 6,000 hectares in June

The project was taken up in 1972 at a cost of
Rs. 5.70 crore
The revised estimate is Rs. 220 crore

Speeding up: Laying of the concrete lining using mechanical pavers is in full swing at the 26th km of the Left Bank Canal of the Amarja Medium Irrigation Project in Aland taluk of Gulbarga district.

Sangolgi (Gulbarga district): It is good news for farmers of the command area of Amarja Medium Irrigation Project. After a wait for 38 years, they have been promised release of water from the project this khariff season in June, 2011.

Amarja Major Irrigation Project was taken up as a drought relief work during the drought in 1972 and later it was converted as a medium irrigation project in 1975. The estimated cost of the project at that time was Rs. 5.70 crore and now the revised estimate is over Rs. 220 crore.

Superintendent of the Gulbarga Irrigation Project Zone B.B. Rampure told The Hindu at the dam site in Aland taluk, that the reconstruction of the canals, distributaries of both the Right and Left Bank Canals was in the advanced stages of completion, and water would be released to more than 6,000 hectares of the command area during the next khariff season.

Except for the dam portion of the project, other works including the laying of canals, construction of the cross drainages, aqueducts, and road bridges and super passages all along the main canals on both the right and left banks were not constructed as per the designs, and most of the works had started crumbling even before the water could be released in the canals.

When there was no hope of release of water in the canal after the water was first impounded in the dam in 1997, and an evaluation conducted by the Water Resources Department about the safety of the canals in the early 2000s came out with a shocking revelations that the canal bed levels in most of the reaches differed and in some reaches canal bed levels were more than 1.5 metre than the stipulated levels.

The release of water in the canals with abnormal canal bed levels would endanger the irrigation system in the project.

At that time the then Water Resource Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge gave approval for taking up the reconstruction of the entire canal length with distributaries and field irrigation canals to ensure flow of water to the farmers fields in the command area. At that time the Irrigation Department authorities spent Rs. 105 crore on the project.

Mr. Rampure said that while the construction of the entire length of the Right Bank Canal of 42.28 km was completed, in the left bank canal up to 30 km of the total length of 54 km was in the advanced stages of completion.

And, the proposal to reconstruct the canal from 31st to 54th km of the LBC was before the State Government.

Mr. Rampure said that with the completion of the LBC up to 30 km and final touches to the construction of the distributaries in both the RBC and LBC, water would be released to the farmers' fields in June for the first time to cultivate the khariff crops.

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