Salient Features of the Lakhwar Multi-Purpose Project:

COST OF THE PROJECT

NEW DELHI: Joining hands to meet future water needs of their respective states, chief ministers of five states - Haryana, Uttar Pradesh , Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan - and DelhiBesides generating 300 MW of hydroelectricity , the project on Yamuna near Lohari village in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand will cater to drinking water needs of the national capital and five states. The project was conceived 42 years ago in 1976.“Delhi will not face water problem for next 20-25 years after this project is completed. Cities in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana will also gain from this project,” said Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari .After signing the MoU, Gadkari said that the problem of water shortage in all six States would be resolved as water flow in river Yamuna will improve in dry season from December to May/June every year.Chief ministers Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje Scindia (Rajasthan), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) and Jai Ram Thakur (Himachal Pradesh) signed the MoU on behalf of their respective states\UT here at National Media Centre.Lakhwar will be the third such major project after Renukaji and Kishau multi-purpose projects which will take care of future drinking water needs of Delhi.The national capital currently faces deficit of 200 million gallons per day (MGD) of water out of its total estimated demand of 1,113 MGD.If Delhi doesn’t explore additional sources of water for its growing demand, the deficit will increase further in coming years.Progress on both Renukaji and Kishau projects have, however, been quite slow as these are still under pre-construction stage (land acquisition and other technical issues including compensation disputes to displaced villagers).Once completed, Lakhwar along with run-of-the-river Vyasi project in Uttarakhand will together supply 135 MGD of water to Delhi. Renukaji and Kishau projects have potential to provide 275 MGD and 372 MGD of water respectively, to the national capital. Vyasi project is expected to be commissioned by December.Environmentalists have, however, been objecting to these projects calling them a recipe for disaster. “It’s a massive dam coming up in highly seismic area. Its spillway capacity, designed in 1980s, has already been declared inadequate ... This is certainly death-knell for Yamuna. Age of large dams is gone and we hope better sense will prevail,” said river expert Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP).Renukaji project is to come up on river Giri, tributary of Yamuna, in Sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh while Kishau project will come up on river Tons - another tributary of Yamuna - along the border of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.Like Renukaji dam project, Lakhwar, too, has been declared a ‘project of national importance’ and therefore its cost (excluding power component) will be borne by the Centre and other beneficiary states in the ratio of 90:10.After completion of all these storage projects in the Upper Yamuna Basin, total benefits in terms of additional irrigation potential created will be 1,30,856 hectares, water availability for various uses will be 1093.83 MCM and power generation capacity will be 1,060 MW.* Location - Lohari village, Dehradun district, Uttarakhand* River – Yamuna* Beneficiary States: Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi* Hydroelectric Capacity - 300 MW(hydropower to be used by Uttarakhand)* Storage Capacity - 330.66 million cubic meters (MCM)* Irrigation Potential - 33,780 hectares* Water for domestic and industrial use - 78.83 MCM(to be shared among six states)* Concrete Gravity Dam - 204m high* Land requirement – 1217.18 Ha* Proposedcommissioning/completion Schedule - Dec. 2022* Total Cost - Rs 3966.51 crore (May 2012 price)* Cost of hydropower component - Rs 1388.28 crore(It is to be borne by Uttarakhand)* Remaining cost (Rs 2578.23 crore) to be shared:Centre - Rs 2320.41 croreHaryana - Rs 123.29 croreUP/Uttarakhand - Rs 86.75 croreRajasthan - Rs 24.08 croreDelhi - Rs 15.58 croreHP - Rs 8.13 crore