Indian Express 11.11.2009

Renuka Dam gets nod, city hopes for water by 2014

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has finally given an environmental clearance to the Rs 2,700-crore Renuka Dam project in Himachal Pradesh — an ambitious project undertaken by the Union government to meet Delhi’s drinking water needs.

The Delhi Jal Board has already paid Rs 250 crore to the Himachal Pradesh government. The Centre, meanwhile, will be funding 90 per cent of the project.

In 1994, a water-sharing agreement was signed between Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, which sought to augment the flow of the Yamuna by constructing the dam. The aim was to provide water to Delhi and generate 40 MW power for Himachal Pradesh.

“Delhi has already paid its share of Rs 250 crore,” Delhi’s Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta told Newsline.

With the much-awaited environment clearance coming through, Delhi is now hopeful that the project will be ready by 2014.

The dam, to be built on Giri Ganga River, will offer a storage capacity of 542 million cubic metres of water and an installed capacity of 40 MW of power. It will supply Delhi an additional 275 million gallons of water per day.

“The dam was planned keeping in mind the requirements of the Masterplan for Delhi, 2021,” a senior government official said.

For Delhi’s needs, the water from the dam will be released at the Hathni Kund barrage, from where it will flow into the Munak Canal. “We have to meet Delhi’s water shortage over the next couple of years. The dam will give us 275 MGD of additional water. So the government is taking up the project on an urgent basis,” Mehta said.

While the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited has carried out preconstruction activities, such as setting pillars and drilling to test soil, the environmental clearance was awaited. “Environmental clearance was granted last week. We are hopeful that the construction gets over by 2014. The process of land acquisition is already over,” said Mehta. The project has, however, faced bottlenecks since its inception.

In 2001, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had rejected forest clearance for the project, based on Supreme Court orders on reservation of sanctuaries. In 2005, after recommendations from the Wildlife Board, the Supreme Court allowed the diversion of 49 hectares of the Renuka Wildlife Sanctuary and an additional 700 hectares of ‘reserved’ forestland towards submergence.