The Himachal Pradesh and Haryana government on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding for construction of a dam near Adi Badri area of Yamuna Nagar district for rejuvenation of Saraswati River with an estimated cost of Rs 215.35 crore.

Chief Secretaries of both the states signed the in the presence of HP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Haryana CM M L Khattar.

Thakur said with the signing of this MoU, the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be fulfilled who has shown his commitment to revive the Saraswati River while addressing the people on 3 April 2014 at Kurukshetra.

“The project would also be of immense useful for Himachal as 3.92 hectare metre water per annum would be earmarked for the state for drinking water requirement and 57.96 hectare metre for irrigation water demand of the project affected habitations. The Dam would not only be used primarily for revival of Saraswati River but also help in water conservation in the region and entire funding of the Project would be arranged by the Haryana government,” he added.

He stated that both the governments would be free to prepare the tourism projects as well as any other infrastructure facilities which may be required for welfare and development of local people from their own resources, without compromising primary objectives of the project.

He further stated that only 21 families of the state would be displaced and they would be properly rehabilitated and the cost of rehabilitation package for oustees and environmental protection package in accordance with prevalent policies of Himachal as well as any other prevalent laws or any other unforeseen cost/ expenditure in this regard related to Adi Badri Dam in future would be borne by the Haryana government and no liability on this account would be passed on to the state.

On completion of this project, River Saraswati would again come alive and out of the total proposed area, 31.16 hectare land falls in Himachal which include 0.67 hectare private land and 30.49 hectare forest land.

The dam would get 224 hectare metre water from Somb River of Himachal that falls in Yamuna near Adi Badri in Yamunanagar district and HPPCL would be the executing agency for construction of Adi Badri Dam and its related infrastructure, he added.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said Saraswati River along with Ganga and Yamuna were the most holy rivers of the country.

With the construction of this Dam Saraswati River would flow throughout the year with 20 cusecs of water all the time and the course of Ghaggar River is said to be the course of Saraswati River.

He stated that this project would go a long way in promoting tourism activities in the area with the joint efforts of governments of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. With the completion of this project not only vistas for tourism would be opened, but it would also recharge ground water.

Adi Badri Dam Construction Monitoring Committee has been constituted for planning, supervising and monitoring of Adi Badri Dam works which comprise of Additional Chief Secretary Irrigation Haryana, Secretary Jal Shakti Vibhag Himachal, Engineer-in-Chiefs and other representatives of both States.