The Ujh multipurpose project was conceived way back in the year 2016 with an estimated expenditure of Rs 4750 crore. The expenditure has now reached more than Rs 9167 crore, yet the mega-structure is lingering in incompletion.
There are continuous surveys conducted by Central Water Commission’s Chief Engineer Shiv Kumar Nandan, yet there are several hitches that hinder the completion of the product. The Phase II clearances including environment clearance, forest Clearance, etc are still pending to kick start the construction of the dam on the field.
“There are Phase II clearances that are still awaited and we are continuously working on this Ujh Multipurpose Project. We are hopeful that in this year, we would be able to kick start it after getting all the requisite clearances,” SK Haldar, Chairman Central Water Commission, told The Daily Guardian.
The project will store around 0.65 million acre-feet (MAF) of water of the Ujh to irrigate nearly 30,000 hectares of land and produce more than 200 MW of hydro-power.
Project authorities apprised that statutory clearances for Phase-I of the project have been obtained. Member (WP&P), CWC emphasized that meetings for the Ujh multipurpose project requested clearances for Phase-II of the project which may be expedited, and the timeline for the same may be intimated within 10 days.
Further, during an internal CWC meeting, several options were discussed, especially regarding the increase in area under Zaid crop, cropping pattern, canal alignment, power potential studies, etc. to further improve the benefits from the project and optimizing the cost of the same.