U’khand, UP finalise water-sharing draft

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, February 27

Officials of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand irrigation departments today finalised the draft for distribution of water from the Jamarani Dam between the two states, paving the way for its construction.

“We have decided that after fulfilling drinking water demands of two states, the remaining water of the dam will be distributed between UP and Uttarakhand in 57:43 ratio for irrigation purposes,” said an engineer of the Uttarakhand Irrigation Department, who attended a meeting at Bareilly.

Sources in the Uttarakhand Irrigation Department said the dam would have capacity to store 283 million cubic metres of water to be distributed between the two states as per the draft.

“The meeting at Bareilly was convened to allay the fears of Uttar Pradesh, which had doubts that it would draw less water for irrigation following the construction of Jamarani Dam. After the discussion, officers from Uttar Pradesh were satisfied with the water-sharing agreement,” said an irrigation official of Uttarakhand.

According to the agreement, while Rampur and Bareilly districts of Uttar Pradesh and parts of Haldwani and its adjoining areas in Uttarakhand will draw water from the dam for irrigation.

“The water drawn from the dam can irrigate 57,000 hectares of land in Uttar Pradesh and solve the problem of drinking water of Haldwani,” said the official.

The 130.6-metre-high dam will be constructed on the Gola river at an estimated cost of Rs 1,537 crore.