A detailed project report entailing a massive investment of ₹60,000 crore to divert surplus water from the Godavari to the Cauvery via the Krishna and Pennar rivers, as part of the Polavaram Irrigation Project, has been prepared, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Friday.
The project for linking the inter-State rivers for a length of 1,252 km — 340 km in Telengana, 551 km in Andhra Pradesh and 361 km in Tamil Nadu — would be a lasting solution to the dispute among the riparian States over sharing the Cauvery river water, Mr. Gadkari said.
He was addressing graduands at the convocation ceremony of the National Institute of Technology Puducherry (NITPY) at Karaikal.
“The disputed quantum of water claimed [as entitlement] was much lesser than what would accrue to Tamil Nadu from the Polavaram project,” Mr. Gadkari said.
Seeking to explain that India was a rich country with poor people, Mr. Gadkari advocated research pursuits for students based on two philosophies: waste to wealth, and knowledge to wealth. To buttress this point, he cited the profitable social enterprises generating substantial wealth by converting sewage water into hydrogen fuel cell.
“The project to operate 400 buses in Maharashtra using bio-CNG, bio-diesel, methane gas sourced from vegetable and animal wastes and ethanol generated from sugarcane as replacement for petroleum products will save ₹60 crore a year,” he said.
Cost-effective power
He called for use of cost-effective power generated from integrated solar-wind plants, similar to the one at Kandla in Gujarat, for use in desalination plants by coastal States. Power generated at Kandla power plant was being sold for only ₹2.30 a unit whereas the desalination plants were purchasing power from conventional sources at ₹6.50 a unit. Also, when the operation of desalination plants were made viable through access to cheap power, the treated water after domestic use could be utilised for agriculture, Mr. Gadkari said.
Tamil Nadu was a rich State, he said and added that it needed appropriate policies and to focus on innovative research to convert knowledge into wealth and eradicate poverty.
“Knowledge, technology and resources alone would not suffice; there must be zeal and entrepreneurship,” the Union Minister told students, urging them to develop the attributes of team work and decision-making.
Mr. Gadkari joined Chief Minister of Puducherry V. Narayanasamy, Education Minister R. Kamalakannan and NITPY Director K. Sankaranarayanasamy in honouring medal winners and awarding degrees to 104 B.Tech graduands, eight M.Tech graduands and four Ph.D holders.
Administrative block
Earlier, Mr. Gadkari inaugurated the new administrative building of the NIT. The new building will house administrative offices, library, training and placement cell and an auditorium.
Presiding over the ceremony, Prof. Sankaranarayanasamy said laboratories developed at a cost of ₹12.38 crore for undertaking cutting-edge research would be put to use soon. A Solar Fish Dryer designed and fabricated by the NIT was donated to fishermen of Kottucherrymedu on the occasion.
