Centre approves two projects for Haryana under CADWM

Chandigarh, Mar 3 (UNI) The Union Ministry of Water Resources has approved two projects namely Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Canal Command Phase-II and Western Jamuna Canal (WJC) Command Phase-VI for Haryana at an estimated cost of Rs 466 crore under the Centrally sponsored Command Area Development and Water Management (CADWM) programme.

While stating this here today, Haryana Irrigation Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav said the estimated cost of JLN Canal Command Phase II project was Rs 150 crore out of which Rs 77 crore was Central share for covering the area of one lakh hectare for construction of 525 watercourses. While, the estimated cost of WJC Command Phase VI project was Rs 316 crore covering two lakh hectare of area for construction of 1542 watercourses, he added.

''The JLN Canal Command Phase-II project covers five districts -- Jhajjar, Rewari, Mohindergarh, Bhiwani and Gurgaon. The project period is nine years and would be completed by 2016. While the WJC canal command Project, which covers an area of eight Districts -- Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Jind, Bhiwani, Hisar, Gurgaon and Panipat, would be completed in 12 years,'' Capt Yadav said.

He said the key work of Command Area Development Authority (CADA) was Water Conservation by constructing watercourses and other components like field, intermediate and link drains adaptive trials and demonstration plots, training to technical staff and farmers, institutional support to water users associations and monitoring and evaluation.

He said at present three Command Area Development (CAD) circles and 12 CAD Divisions were implementing the work of CADA programme.

The Minister said JLN Canal Command Phase-II project would be launched on March 5 in Surani village near Narnaul by starting the construction work on watercourse at RD 720-L Nolpur Distributory.

''The project would help to conserve the most precious lift irrigation water for Haryana. However, at the same time, the farmers have to commit themselves to use Micro Irrigation techniques like drip and sprinkler in order to conserve water.'' He said in addition to these two projects, CADA Haryana was implementing Bhakra Canal Command Project (BCC) covering an area of 2.4 lakh hectares with an estimated cost of Rs 375 crore for construction of 1,243 watercourses in eight districts namely Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Jind and Ambala.

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