Haryana to expedite Bhakra Canal Command projects

Chandigarh, Jul 17 (UNI) With a view to fulfilling its commitment to provide sufficient irrigation water to every inch of land in the state, the Haryana government has decided to complete the construction work of all the ongoing Bhakra Canal Command (BCC) projects before its scheduled time.

Stating this here today, a spokesman for the Canal Area Development Authority (CADA) said the construction work of 1243 watercourses at a cost of Rs 375 crore had been approved by the Union Government under the BCC project which was to be completed by the year 2010-11.

However, these would now be completed by the year 2009 much ahead of its schedule.

He said that out of the total, 732 watercourses at a cost of Rs 178.18 crore had already been constructed by the CADA while the construction work of remaining 511 watercourses was in progress.

He said that under this project, the farmers of eight districts namely, Ambala, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Jind, Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad would be benefited and 2,39,154 hectares of land would be covered for irrigation.

After the completion of project, the farmers of all these eight districts would get sufficient water for irrigation, he added.

The spokesman said that the Authority had also constructed 185 watercourses at a cost of Rs 22.92 crore under the Western Jamuna Canal (WJC) Command Phase-IV project. He said farmers of five districts namely, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, Jind and Bhiwani would get sufficient water for irrigation purpose and it would check the loss of precious water through seepage in these areas.

He said the Union Ministry of Water Resources had approved 17 projects under the Canal Area Development Programme out of which 14 projects had already been completed and the work on remaining three projects was in progress.

UNI MA JS1924