Rs 16,000 crore water scheme for Marathwada announced

NPnews24 online, Pune: As the drought situation in Marathwada is increasing every year, the government has approved a Rs 16,000 crore water supply scheme for the region.  The scheme is called ‘Marathwada Jalsanjaal’.

It is a network of pipelines that will supply water to the whole region and will be implemented in phases.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced the objective of providing water supply to most parts of the country in a three-year period, thousands of km of closed pipelines will be laid in place to supply water to Marathwada.

The dams are also going to be added to the scheme.  The scheme also includes facilities like water purification projects and pumping stations.  In five districts of Marathwada, the monsoon deficit is 20 to 42 per cent and it is also prevalent in other parts of Maharashtra.

The new scheme of 16,000 crores will be known as ‘Marathwada Jalsanjaal’ and its first tender will go out this week.  This includes the work of 4527 crore in the first phase.  A total of 11 main dams in Marathwada will be connected to this and for that, 1.5 m to 2.4 m diameter pipeline will be used.

The water in the dams will be diverted with additional water storage in the primary network.

Due to the pipelines, this network will act as a power network. Dams with excess water will be conencted and the water will be then supplied to talukas with water scarcity. The ‘Marathwada Jalsanjaal’ will also get water from the western channels of the Konkan, which are now flowing into the Arabian Sea. Additional water will also be included in the Krishna valley.

Initially, the tenders for Aurangabad, Jalna and Beed will be given out and the remaining tenders will be given out after the forthcoming State Assembly elections which are due in October.