Union budget: Finance Minister announces allotment of Rs 1,400 crore for Ken-Betwa link project

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech on Tuesday, announced an allocation of 1,400 crore for the much awaited Ken-Betwa linking project. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 44,605 crore.

This is the first major project under the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of the country. The project will benefit to draught-prone Bundelkhand region spreading in 13 district of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The project will provide irrigation benefits to 9lakh hectares of farmers’ land, drinking water supply to over 62 lakh people, 103 MW of Hydro and 23 MW of Solar Power.

“The implementation of the Ken-Betwa Link Project at an estimated cost of Rs 44,605 crore will be taken up. This is aimed at providing irrigation benefits to 9 lakh hectares of land, drinking water supply to 62 lakh people, 103 MW of hydro (power), 27 MW of solar power. Allocations of Rs 4,300 crore in the RE 2021-22 and Rs 1,400 crore in 2022-23 have been made for this project,” Sitharaman said in her budget speech.

An agreement between the Jal Shakti ministry and Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments was signed in March 2021.

The project will also pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country.

The reservoir involves a submergence of 9,000 hectares area, out of which 5,803 hectares comes under Panna Tiger Reserve. The latter includes 4,141 hectares of forest area, which is about 7.6 per cent of the total Panna Tiger Reserve area.