CHANDIGARH: With the chief ministers of six neighboring states joining hands to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the presence of Union minister for water resources Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday, the decades long issue of Lakhwar dam in Uttrakhand is likely to see the light of the day now.

The development comes at the time when opposition parties have trained the guns of Khattar-led BJP government over the issue of SYL canal.

Besides Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar , other CMs who shall sign the MoU include, Rajsthan CM Vasundhara Raje , Uttrakhand CM TS Rawat, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal .

The proposed Rs 3,966.50 crore project will come up in Lohari village of Dehradun and will provide 2.67 lakh MAF water. Besides water needs, the dam will also help in getting the electricity issues also addressed.

Haryana CM Khattar's media advisor Rajiv Jain said that soon after coming to power, PM Narendera Modi had announced to start work on this project. "Consequently, Union minister took initiative and brought CMs of all the six beneficiary states to a common platform to finalize the modalities for starting the project. This issue has been hanging fire for atleast three decades. All the parties have done politics. But we have made it practically possible,'' Jain said.

In 1976, the Planning Commission had approved the setting up of dam in Lohari village at 204 meter height. Consequently, in 1986 the work on construction of dam had began but had stopped due paucity of funds.

Following this in 1994, the six states had met again and signed the MoU for distribution of water and electricity from this project.

"This project is popularly known as Uppar Yamuna project. It was in February this year when all the formalities were completed and the clearances had been obtained. Now, the CMs have consented to sign final MoU to resume the project,"said Jain.

After SYL, this is the second such project, which has been declared the National Project, he added.

