Pawan Kumar Bansal announces enquiry committee for Farakka barrage leakage.

NEW DELHI: Union water resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has set up a committee for enquiry into the Farakka barrage leakage case, for which West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee has recently asked the prime minister to intervene and take urgent step .

RC Jha, chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) will be the head of the committee, which has been asked to submit the report in 15 days.

"The average life of a project like this is 70 years, and if problem like these occur, they need to enquired about and solved," said Bansal.

Two out of the 123 gates of the barrage, which is located on the banks of river Ganga in West Bengal, broke down last year. Gate number 13 broke on June 16 and gate number 16 on December 9.

West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee had recently asked for centre's assistance in the issue. "Dr AK Ganju, Member, Design and Research, CWC was sent immediately to look into the matter and now we have taken the necessary action," said Bansal.

Due to the breaking up of gates and drainage of water from the barrage, there is fear of excess water flowing into Bangladesh. The neighbouring country is one of the beneficiaries of the barrage in dry season as it is supposed to get 35,000 cusecs of water.

There is also a growing apprehension of the water level of the Bhagirathi river coming down which is connected with the barrage through the Bhagirathi-Hooghly feeder canal.