Government constitutes task force on interlinking of rivers

NEW DELHI: Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation has constituted a 'Task Force' on Interlinking of Rivers comprising experts and senior officials to look into the issues relating to Interlinking of Rivers ( ILR) in the country. The Task Force would be chaired by BN Navalawala.

The expert members of the Task Force would be Sriram Vedire, Adviser in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Prodipto Ghosh, Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, AD Mohile, Former Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC), M Gopalakrishnan, Former Member, Central Water Commission and Virag Gupta, Advocate. Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Chairman, Central water Commission, Director General, National Water Development Agency and Joint Secretary (Finance), in the Ministry of Water Resources will be the other members of the Task Force.

The Task Force will take up all issues for expediting the work on interlinking of rivers in the Country. Apart from examining the existing links that are laid out as per the National Perspective Plan under both Himalayan and Peninsular components, the task force would also consider alternative plans in place of infeasible links in the present plan. The Task Force would facilitate interlinking of intra-state and intra-basin Rivers also along with that of inter-state and inter-basin links. The Task Force would recommend the time schedules for completion of feasibility studies and DPR's of all the links, implementation schedule of all the links and also suggest on various means of funding mechanisms for the Interlinking of Rivers.

The Task Force would also provide guidance on norms of appraisal of individual projects in respect of economic viability, socio-economic, environmental impacts and preparation of resettlement plans. It would also device suitable mechanisms for bringing about speedy consensus amongst the states and also propose suitable organizational structure for implementing the Interlinking of Rivers. The Task Force would also try to forge a consensus amongst the states in order to take forward the speedy implementation of the Interlinking of Rivers Program.