Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s parched Cauvery has fair chances of getting replenished with surplus water from neighbouring Andhra’s Godavari river if the plan by Centre gets underway with the nod of Chief Ministers of four states.

Realising the plight of states like TN, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan that are deprived of water due to insufficient rains, Union water resources and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that his government has initiated two proposals aimed at ensuring a lasting solution for TN’s agriculture and drinking water requirements.

Centre has taken up interlinking of rivers in “right earnest”, he said. He plans to convene a meeting of CMs of four states – TN, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and evolve a plan to transfer surplus water of Godavari to Cauvery to address water scarcity in the south.

“My ministry has decided to transfer surplus water from Godavari river to Krishna, to Pennar river (Karnataka) and finally to Cauvery. We will prepare the technical proposals and invite the four CMs to get their consent,” he said.

“We will treat these projects as national projects because this is a river connectivity project….and 90 per cent of the project cost will be borne by Government of India and remaining 10 per cent by state governments,” he said.

The first project envisages drawing of 300 tmc feet water from Godavari to Polavaram project (in Andhra Pradesh) through Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and to Krishna River. Thereafter, the water would be taken to Somasila dam on the Pennar and from there it would be taken to the Grand Anaicut on river Cauvery, all through steel pipes.

If Karnataka objects, Centre would proceed with the second project of sourcing water from Indravati river (Central India) to Nagarjuna Sagar dam.