Odisha govt plans irrigation cover for 10 lakh hectares in five years

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 25:

The Odisha government has set a target of providing irrigation facilities across 10 lakh hectares of arable land in the next five years with an estimated cost of Rs 18,000 crore, official sources said.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level review meeting presided over by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here recently.

While 54 percent (33.12 lakh hectares) of the total land in

the state have irrigation facilities, the government has prepared a blueprint to provide irrigation facilities to another 10 lakh hectares in the next five years, the sources said.

It was revealed during the meeting that while a target was set to provide irrigation facilities to 2.04 lakh hectares of land in the current fiscal,only 32,670 hectares have been covered by September 30.

However, the target to provide irrigation of 35 percent land in each block has fallen short by 40 percent.

Out of a total of 314 blocks, 189 blocks have been provided with the facilities so far.

To achieve the target of irrigating 10 lakh hectares, it was decided to set up 10,000 shallow bore wells, 1.25 lakh deep bore wells, 5000 micro lift irrigation projects, 6000 community lift irrigation projects, 156 minor irrigation projects, 175 medium irrigation projects and 14 mega irrigation projects, the sources informed.

The chief minister asked the concerned authorities to implement these projects with perfection to ensure round-the-year irrigation facilities.

The meeting also discussed the steps taken on the various ongoing irrigation projects in the state funded by the Central government, NABARD, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the state government, strengthening of river embankments and pre-assessment and forecast of floods.

Among others, Development Commissioner AP Padhi, principal secretary, Water Resources, Pradip Jena, special secretary Chitra Arumugam and senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.