Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur participated in the MOU signing ceremony at New Delhi today for construction of Rs. 4596.76 crore Renukaji multipurpose dam project on Giri river in upper Yamuna basin.Chief Ministers of six states including Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh signed the MOU in the presence of Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari.The dam will augment water availability for Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The project will also generate 40 MW of power during peak flow. The project is proposed to be executed by Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (HPPCL).Jai Ram Thakur informed that since 90 percent cost of power component is being borne by Delhi government, Himachal would get about 200 million units of electricity at Rs. 0.30 per unit only. It would earn net revenue of about Rs. 60 crore per annum to HPPCL and Rs. 12 crore to the state government in its first year of operation. These revenue benefits would further increase over a period of time. He added that with the flow of investment of more than Rs. 5000 crore, economy of state in general and district Sirmour in particular would benefit immensely.He informed that he had vigorously pursued the matter of funding the power component with the Centre as a result of which the Delhi government agreed to finance 90 percent cost of power house and the project received fast clearance within three months.
The Chief Minister said that after the construction of dam, the flow of river Giri will increase about 110 percent which will meet the drinking water needs of Delhi and other basin states up to some extent in lean period. The project will provide 49800 ha m (0.498 billion cubic metre) of live storage in its reservoir and a firm water supply to the tune of 23 cumecs to Delhi, he added.The 90 percent cost of irrigation/drinking water component of the project i.e. Rs. 3892.83 crore will be provided by the Central government and rest 10 percent of the above cost i.e. Rs. 432.54 crore by the basin states of Haryana, UP/UK, HP, Rajasthan & NCT of Delhi in the proportion as allocated in the MoU signed by the Chief Ministers of the basin states for the allocation of surface water of river Yamuna up to Okhla barrage.The shares of these states viz. Haryana, UP/UK, HP, Rajasthan and NCT of Delhi are 47.82%, 33.65%, 3.15%, 9.34% and 6.04% respectively. For the investigation and land acquisition of the project, Central government has released Rs. 446.96 crore, government of Delhi has released Rs. 214.84 crore and government of Haryana has released Rs. 25 crore till date.Ministers of State for Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Arjun Ram Meghwal and Satyapal Singh, Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh B.K Agarwal and senior officers of six states were present in the function.