From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Feb 8: The State Government plans to construct a balancing dam near Navile near Hospet in Ballari district, in the downstream of the river Tunga Bhadra, to off-set the loss of over 31 tmcft of water due to collection of silt in the Tunga Bhadra reservoir.

Karnataka’s Water Resources minister M B Patil informed the Legislative Council on Wednesday that the balancing reservoir needs to be constructed to make up for the loss of water due to accumulation of silt in the Tunga Bhadra dam which was constructed 64 years ago.

Replying to a question from Congress member N S Bhosaraju, during question hour in the Legislative Council, the minister said that the decision to build the balancing reservoir has been taken following a deficit of over 32 tmc of water in the Tunga Bhadra reservoir.

Construction of a balancing reservoir near Tunga Bhadra Dam has become inevitable as the State is not in a position to impound requisite quantum of water in the reservoir, which had resulted in shortage in the flow of water in the canal networks in the Tunga Bhadra command area, the minister said.

He said that a detailed project report is being put place to take up the work.

“The cost of the proposed balancing dam would be around Rs 500 to 600 crore and about 16000 acres of land which is available in the proposed dam site, also been identified to realise the project”, he said.

Earlier raising the issue in the house, the Congress member said a large tract of command area in the region has turned barren following inadequate flow of water in the canal networks and the farmers are in distress.

In reply to another question from Mahanthesh Kavatagi Mutt (BJP), the minister said the State Government has taken up strengthening up of as many as 27 major and medium sized dams in the state, including that of Krishna Raja Sagar (Cauvery), Alamatti (Krishna) and Narayanapur (Krishna) with the World bank’s financial assistance and the works are being carried with full vigour.

“We have set a target to complete the strengthening of as many as 22 reservoirs before June next year” he said.

The total grants received under the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) by the state government was about Rs 480.82 crore, the minister added.

In reply to another question of BJP member Rudrappa Hanamanth Nirani, the minister said among the 137 rehabilitation centres opened under the UPK State I and Stage II, as many as 87 centres had been handed over the concerned village panchayats and the remaining would be handed over after providing all the necessary amenities required under the rehabilitation Act.

“The State Government has released about Rs 191.50 crore to complete all the ongoing works being undertaken in the rehabilitation centres” he said.

In reply to BJP member B J Puttaswamy, the minister said  the State government had allocated about Rs 42539 crore to Water Resources department during the last three and half years.

An amount of over Rs  31,534.65 crore has been spent till the end of December 2016, the minister said.