Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in a meeting on the Kishau Dam Multipurpose Project under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Water Power Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also participated virtually. In the meeting, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami and the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Jai Ram Thakur, presented their views on the project.

Dhami said, “In case of increase in the cost of project DPR, the power component cost should be kept constant or the increased power component cost should be borne by the other four beneficiary states–Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi so that electricity supply can be made available to the consumers of the state at affordable rates”.

The CM Dhami further added that this national project would prove to be a milestone for the development of Uttarakhand because during the period of project development, various resources of income enhancement such as permanent and temporary employees would be available directly and indirectly to the local residents and villagers.

For the development and welfare of the area, from time to time, with the cooperation of the local public representatives, beneficial schemes for the area will be developed, due to which the problem of migration can be controlled to a great extent.

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, “The next meeting will be held soon after discussing the points raised in today’s meeting”.

It is worth mentioning that the work of implementation of the Kishau

Multipurpose Dam Project is being done by Kishau Corporation Limited, a joint venture of the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments.
This project was declared a National Project in February 2008.

According to the CMO, the Kishau Dam project will be the second largest dam project in Asia which will have a height of 236 metres and a length of 680 metres.

The Kishau project is proposed on the Tons river in the Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state and the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.

In this, the 97,076-hectare land will be irrigated by 1,324 MCAM live storage, and 617 MCM will be available for drinking water and industrial use from which three states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana as per the reports submitted by CM Dhami and CM Jai Ram Thakur.

According to the reports, the irrigation requirement of Rajasthan and drinking water requirement of Delhi will be met as well as 660 MW of hydroelectricity will be generated, from which 1,379 MU of green electric energy will be obtained, which will be equally available to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The total cost of the project by the Central Water Commission as per the price level in March 2018 was Rs. 11,550 crore, in which the cost of the water component is Rs.10,013.96 crore and the cost of the electricity component is Rs. 1,536.04 crores has been sold.

Presently, the DPR of the project is in progress, in which the cost of the project is estimated to increase, said the report presented during the meeting.

In view of being a national project, 90 per cent of the water component cost (irrigation and drinking water) will be financed by the Government of India and 10 per cent by the beneficiary states for the implementation of the project and the electricity component cost will be shared by the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments.