With the modernisation of the canal network in the multi-crore Bennethora Major Irrigation Project picking up speed, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for this inordinately delayed project designed to irrigate 21,000 hectares of land in the drought-prone Chittapur and Sedam taluks in Kalaburagi district.
The State government gave its approval for the modernisation of the canal network, which was in a bad shape due to reasons such as its non use for decades together, long ago. The work included replacement of the Shahabad slab lining and reinforced cement concrete (RCC) lining of the main canal and distributaries at a cost of Rs. 174 crore.
According to official information available with The Hindu , the RCC lining of the main canal has been completed on 29 km of the total length of 82 km in the Right Bank Canal and 14 km of the 62 km of the Left Bank Canal and the work in the rest of the length of the main canal and distributaries has been hastened to complete it by November-end.
The excavation work and removal of the Shahabad stone slabs in the distributaries in both the Right Bank Canal and the Left Bank Canal have also been taken up and the RCC lining work would be soon taken up in the distributaries. Initially, the cost of the modernisation work of the canal and distributary network was put at Rs. 150 crore, but a team of technical experts who visited the project had increased it to Rs. 172.12 crore.
The Bennethora Major Irrigation project taken up in 1972 as a drought relief work got bogged down due to reasons including lack of financial allocations in subsequent years. The canals and distributaries constructed even before the impounding of the water in the Bennethora Dam were damaged due to the rigours of time.
The project has been allocated 5.29 tmcft of water. Although the water was impounded in the Bennethora Dam several years ago and the project “inaugurated” officially by the then Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the water had not reached the command areas even once after the so called inauguration due to faulty canal systems.
Water Resource Minister M.B. Patil is visiting the project on Monday to review the progress.
