Odisha govt targets irrigation in 10 lakh ha in five years

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 20:

The Odisha government has set a target to provide irrigation facilities in 10 lakh hectares of land in the next five years.

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

Since providing irrigation facility remains one of the top priorities of the state government, the chief minister asked the concerned officials to meet the target in five years.

It was decided that the state government, which has provided irrigation facilities to 1.33 lakh hectares in 2014-15, would provide the facilities to 2.08 lakh hectares in 2015-16. Of this, 10,000 hectares would be irrigated through mega and medium irrigation programmes, 35,000 hectares through Mega Lift Irrigation Programme (MLIP) and 1.63 lakh hectares through medium and micro irrigation programme.

The meeting had a threadbare discussion on the status of mega and medium irrigation projects and MLIP.

Work on 28 projects under MLIP is underway and will be completed by February next year. These projects would facilitate irrigation to 35,450 hectares, the meeting revealed.

While work on 19 projects is on, construction work for Indravati MLIP has started. To meet the target, the state government has opened tenders for 55 projects, the meeting revealed.

The state government has set a target to irrigate 4.08 lakh hectares through nine mega and 11 minor irrigation projects of which 1.37 lakh hectares have already been irrigated.

Besides, the government has set up 57,632 borewell units from 2010-11 to 2014-15 of which 26,338 units have been energised.

Among others, chief secretary, additional chief secretary to chief minister, additional chief secretary, Finance, principal secretary, Water Resources, secretary, Agriculture and senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.