Soren undertakes aerial survey of Swarna Rekha dams

Jamshedpur, Oct 11 (UNI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren today undertook an aerial survey of three big dams of the Swarna Rekha multi-purpose project.

Mr Soren conducted the survey to check the progress of the multi-crore project, which is a three-state venture involving West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand.

Deputy Chief Minister Sudhir Mahato, Land Reforms and Revenue Minister Dulal Bhuiyan, Chief Secretary A K Basu and Principal Secretary B K Tripathi also assisted Mr Soren in the survey of Chandil, Palna and under-construction Icha dam.

Earlier, while talking to mediapersons at the airport here, Mr Soren said he wanted each and every field in the state to get water.

He also said the reason behind the survey was to see that the money sanctioned for the project was not misutilised.

The sanctioned money of the project has gone up from Rs 100 crore to Rs 5500 crore of which Rs 3500 crore have already been spent, the Chief Minister told the mediapersons after surveying the dams.

Mr Mahato said the Chief Minister will meet the officers concerned in order to resolve the issue of one km forest land in the main canal of the project, which was resulting in the obstruction of the water flow.

The project launched in 1981 primarily for irrigation and power purposes has not been completed yet. A waterway connecting the Orissa coastline to Swarna Rekha project is also proposed under the project he added.

UNI XC ARB AKJ HT1900