Minor Irrigation Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi has said that a series of check-dams will be built in five parched districts of the State at a cost of Rs. 380 crore.
He told reporters here on Wednesday that the aim of this project was to increase water storage capacity and groundwater table in the districts of Kolar, Chickballapur, Koppal, Gadag and Vijayapura.
The valleys and areas where water sources were available for the construction of check-dams had been identified. The detailed project report had been prepared and tenders would be floated soon. The work on this project would begin by the end of March 2015.
As a pilot project, automatic floodgates would be installed at the saltwater exclusion dam (SWED) at Senapura, near Byndoor, in Udupi district at a cost of Rs. 12 crore. At present, floodgates of this dam are manually operated.
In addition, the gates of the dam, which are made of iron and subject to rust, would be replaced by those made of fibre reinforced polymer. If this technology was successful in Senapura, such gates would be installed at all the SWEDs in the three coastal districts of Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, and Uttara Kannada.
A sum of Rs. 5.6 crore had been allocated for various minor irrigation works for Udupi district. This included Rs. 1.98 crore for the construction of a flood-protection wall, Rs. 85 lakh for sinking borewells and digging open wells under the Scheduled Caste Welfare Plan, and Rs. 96 lakh for developing irrigation facilities under the Scheduled Tribal Welfare Plan.
Funds for various irrigation works under the NABARD scheme for Udupi district had been allocated. This included Rs. 1.1 crore for the Udupi Assembly constituency, Rs. 2 crore each for Kaup and Byndoor segments, and Rs. 1 crore for the Karkala segment, Mr. Tangadagi said.
