Rs 114.78-cr solar-powered irrigation project brings hope to drought-prone Mahendragarh
Mahendragarh, one of Haryana's most rain-dependent and groundwater-stressed districts, has been allocated the largest single share - Rs 114.78 crore under a new Rs 402.41-crore state solar-powered micro-irrigation programme, positioning the Ahirwal district as the lead beneficiary of a push aimed at cutting its historic dependence on erratic monsoons.
Mahendragarh sits in Haryana's arid southwestern extremity, bordering Rajasthan, and receives under 500 mm of annual rainfall among the lowest in the state. Farming here has traditionally leaned on rain-fed bajra and pulses in the kharif season, with wheat, mustard and gram grown on residual soil moisture in rabi. Six of Mahendragarh's blocks, including Narnaul and Nangal Choudhary, are officially categorised as "over-exploited" by the state's Ground Water Cell, where extraction has crossed 100 per cent of the annually replenishable resource part of a wider crisis in which 88 of Haryana's 143 blocks now fall in the same category. Statewide, the overall stage of groundwater extraction stood at 135.74 per cent as of the last Central Ground Water Board assessment, meaning the state draws more water annually than the nature replenishes.
Against this backdrop, the State-Level Sanctioning Committee, headed by Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, approved four community-based Solar-Powered Integrated Micro-Irrigation Projects under the Micro Irrigation and Command Area Development Authority (MICADA), covering Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Kurukshetra and Mahendragarh districts.
Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Shyam Singh Rana said Haryana believed in strengthening agriculture through technology, and that the state government was committed to developing agriculture with modern practices that reduced dependence on erratic rainfall and depleting groundwater.
In Mahendragarh, the project will draw on canal outlets to bring the additional culturable command area under drip and sprinkler-based micro-irrigation, with solar power replacing diesel or grid electricity to run the systems a shift officials say will lower the farmers' operational costs while reducing pressure on the water table. Across all four districts, the initiative spans 61 canal outlets over 20 blocks, targeting 11,040 hectares and 8,926 farmers across 94 villages. The remaining allocations are Rs 95.78 crore for Bhiwani, Rs 114.68 crore for Jhajjar and Rs 77.17 crore for Kurukshetra.
The projects are scheduled for completion between 2026-27 and 2028-29 and will be delivered through a direct benefit transfer model, which officials say is intended to ensure transparency in disbursal to the farmers. The benefit-cost ratio for the projects ranges from 1.21:1 to 1.65:1, according to records shared during a recent meeting of the sanctioning committee.
Between 2022-23 and 2024-25, MICADA had already implemented 99 NABARD-funded Micro Irrigation Fund schemes across 18 districts at a cost of Rs 563.43 crore, with micro-irrigation systems installed over nearly 40 per cent of the targeted area a base the new projects are meant to build on.
