Excess water from Brahmaputra river, if used properly, may prove to be a boon for the drought-prone Peninsular India, and may end farmers’ distress in Maharashtra, envisages research of Prashant Janbandhu, retired Chief Engineer, Public Works Department. He has been working for past five years on modalities of water transfer from Brahmaputra to the rest of India as a subject for PhD at Water Resources Engineering branch of Department of Civil Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur. “VNIT is planning to establish a ‘Center of Excellence for Interlinking of Rivers and Inland Navigation’. It is actively supporting my research, which is now nearing completion,” Janbandhu told ‘The Hitavada’. According to Janbandhu, Maharashtra’s present irrigation system has potential to irrigate only 126 lakh Ha of the total cultivable land (226 lakh Ha). The remaining 100 lakh Ha of cultivable land spread over Amravati division, Marathwada region, and parts of West and North Maharashtra, has no irrigation mechanism, and agriculture is rainfed.

 

“These areas can be served by transferring excess water from Brahmaputra to the river basins and reservoirs in Maharashtra,” he stressed. Excess water in Brahmaputra causes floods in the North-East, but Peninsular India is water-deficient. Transferring Brahmaputra’s excess water to Peninsular India will give relief to people in both the regions, Janbandhu added. The other justifications for the project include rising need for water and agricultural production to meet the requirement of growing population, and climate change. Monsoon shifting to higher altitudes towards the Himalayas and North-West borders of India in next 50 years means that Central, Eastern, Northern, and some parts of Western India will receive below-normal rainfall. Brahmaputra has 15,000 TMC/year water available at 75% dependability. But, Janbandhu claimed, all existing reservoirs and dams in Maharashtra have the capacity of 1,200 TMC only. Only 5 per cent of water in Brahmaputra valley gets utilised, and the rest flows out in the Bay of Bengal. With the help of his co-researchers at VNIT, Janbandhu has drawn up plan for ‘National Water Grid of Drought Prone Areas of India’ to transfer 5,400 TMC/year water from Brahmaputra to Peninsular India. It proposes lifting water at the initial stages to achieve commanding height so that most of the drought-prone areas at lower elevation get water through gravity. The project proposes a barrage at Jogighopa on Brahmaputra at Tamranga beel. From there, water will be brought through pipes to Teesta barrage.

 

Already, a 50-metre wide, 25.7 km long canal exists between Teesta barrage and Fulbari barrage in Siliguri corridor in West Bengal, transferring via natural flow Teesta’s excess water to Mahananda. To carry Brahmaputra water, Teesta-Fulbari link canal will have to be widened to 200 metres. The project proposes converting Fulbari barrage into a detention dam, from where water will be transferred to the existing Getulsad dam in Ranchi district (Jharkhand). Getulsad dam is strategic to the success of the water transfer because of its altitude, Janbandhu said. Since the dam is at a height of 578 metres above mean sea level, and most of the Peninsular India drought-prone areas are at a lower elevation, water from Getulsad can travel through natural flow mechanism. Janbandhu’s proposal involves constructing two canals from Getulsad -- South canal going up to Totaldoh dam in Nagpur district following the alignment south of Satpuras, giving water to intercepting rivers viz Suvarnarekha, South Koel, Mahanadi, Brahmni, Sheonath, Bawanthadi, Wainganga, and Pench.

 

Thereafter, water will flow to Sapan dam in Amravati district, Wakapur dam in Washim district, up to Jayakwadi dam across Godavari at Paithan, Ujani, Almatti, Tungabhadra, KRS, Bhavani Sagar, Amaravathi, Vaigai, Thamirabarani dams, and to Kanyakumari, with en route utilisation. This canal will provide water to Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The West Canal from Getulsad will carry 2,400 TMC of water and provide it to North Koel, Sone, Tons, Ken, Betwa, Chambal, and rivers originating from the Vindhyas, and the Aravallis. It will provide water to Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, and Punjab. In the regions along these canal routes, sub-canals and pipe outlets can be laid out from the main canals, and several reservoirs can be built to store water and irrigate different land parcels. Janbandhu estimated the cost of the project to be around Rs 25 lakh crore! The project involves installation of solar panels on the canals to generate solar power, and hydroelectricity wherever fall exists in the canals or sub-canals. This power can be used for lifting water wherever required. “The proposed National Water Grid may bring prosperity to people, transform various regions into perennial green zones, and can stop farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra and other drought-prone areas of India. The plan can be implemented on a build-operate-transfer basis given its immense market potential,” Janbandhu suggested.