Rivers Interlinking
The main planing was chalked out in 2002-2003 under Atal ji in which a plan was passed to interconnect thirty links and built three thousand reservoirs. The idea was given by Arthur cotton in 19 th century and that was basically for navigation. The idea firstly came into India in 1972 when K.L.RAO the then minister of irrigation and power under Prime minister Indira Gandhi presented the idea. In 1982 National Water Development Agency (NWDA) prepared plan for thirty links, three thousand reservoirs and 12500 km of canals. It was a very daunting project. In 2002 NWDA estimated 5,60,000 crore investment need in this but was not implemented. Why interlinking? – to check flood in north east and eastern area. – drought in western and peninsular India – temporal and spatial variation regarding precipitation and availability – depleting ground water resource which is 62.95 percent used for irrigation. Advantages- – tackling drought and flood. – more benefit example