Gandhinagar: State cabinet minister Rushikesh Patel informed the state assembly that check dams, weirs and barrages will be built at a cost of Rs 500 crore in the next 5 years on the rivers namely Nar, Tan, Ambika, Par, Tapi, Narmada, and Daman Ganga in South Gujarat.

He informed that the average rain of 2000 mm falls in the monsoon in the areas of rivers of Surat, Tapi, Dang and Navsari including Purna, Ambika, Kaveri, Gira, and Khapri. This rainwater merges into the sea without any usage and the areas face shortage of drinking water in January after monsoon. These geographical areas fall into forest land and therefore building large dams is not possible, he said. The provision of Rs 94 crore is made in the budget of the current year for the same.

The provision of Rs 61 crore is made for repairing of the existing check dams. No land acquisition from farmers is needed for making new check dams in these areas, he said.

Patel said the Narmada project is going to be copleted at a cost of Rs. 72,000 crore. Kutch brandh canal expansion structure, missing link, subminor pipeline’s concluding 6 per cent works are to be completed in year 2022-23 for which Rs.3020 crore provision has been made.

He said series of structures are planned between Dharoi dam to Sant sarovar barrage at Fatepura, Tenchava, Fudeda, Flu and Madhavgadh villages for construction of barrages and wiers at a cost of Rs. 9 crore. After completion of these works, Sabarmati river will become live in 80 km stretch between Dharoi to Sant Sarovar. DeshGujarat