Chennai: Following a plea from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to augment the water resources in the State by linking of Cauvery-Godavari rivers, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development, Nitin Gadkari, has assured that they would take up the project after Cabinet clearance.
The Union Minister’s renewed assurance to bring water to Tamilnadu has brought hopes to end water crisis in the State. Interestingly though BJP had lost Lok Sabha elections in Tamilnadu miserably, the State unit of the party, quoting Gadkari’s promise to implement the project, tweeted, “This is what BJP is all about. Even though you reject #TNRejectsBJP, they will do their duty.”
In January, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced that the detailed project report for the linking of four south Indian rivers — Godavari, Krishna, Pennar and Cauvery — was ready and that Cabinet approval would be obtained.
When he speaking at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, he stated that the project would help save around 1,100 tmcft of Godavari water which is flowing into the sea, and use it to irrigate the fields of Tamilnadu.
He added that this project would be implemented using steel pipes to interlink the rivers, as canals lead to loss of water due to evaporation.
It is said the project would resolve the water disputes among four southern States of Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Chief Minister Palaniswami too promised recently that the Godavari and Cauvery rivers would be linked to solve the water crisis faced by the delta districts in the State. Speaking at an election campaign in Thiruvarur district, the Chief Minister said Tamilnadu was tired of fighting battles for water legally and that the two rivers in South India would be linked at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore.
Furthermore, he said that a team of retired engineers are studying ways to conserve water that flows into the sea, and that the government will ensure that all water bodies are desilted and maintained properly to prevent water from wastefully draining into the Bay of Bengal.
Sources say Palaniswami, who was in New Delhi yesterday at a meeting to elect Modi as the leader of NDA, had thanked Modi and Nitin Gadkari for considering to implement the project to interlink Cauvery-Godavari rivers.