Prepare plan to complete irrigation projects in 3 yrs: Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday asked officials to prepare a plan for completion of irrigation projects in 3 years and submit a proposal for approval at the earliest.

He was speaking at a meeting here to review issues of Water Resources department, with Ministers Girish Mahajan and Vijay Shivtare. "For accurate planning, there is a need to create a mechanism to track exact irrigation status every year by co-ordination of all the departments," Fadnavis said.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of reports that the Maharashtra government is looking at raising funds through loans, soft borrowings from international and domestic institutions and public bonds. The state irrigation department is likely to complete
at least 80 per cent projects in three years by infusing funds through this route.

Maharashtra has 376 ongoing projects, including 67 major, 83 medium and 226 minor, with a balance cost of Rs 84,430 crore. Once completed, these dams can irrigate another 32.21 lakh hectares of farmland.