Devendra Fadnavis speeds up ‘Nar-Par river’ linking project

Mumbai: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has fastened the Nar-Par river linking project. The prestigious project is a part of a broader strategy to address water scarcity in the state.

Maharashtra is home to several major rivers, yet water scarcity remains a critical problem. The state still faces water shortages in several regions like Dhule, Nandurbar, and Solapur. This has lead to distress among farmers.

For example, while the Godavari River starts in Nashik, it fails to adequately supply water to nearby districts such as Jalgaon and Dhule. Additionally, ineffective management of western channel rivers like Damanganga and Nar has resulted in substantial water flow lost to Gujarat.

The Par-Tapi-Narmada river linking project, initially greenlit in 1980 to resolve water shortages in North Maharashtra. But the project was  stalled due to a lack of follow-through by the government at the time. In 2019, former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis took a decisive step by declining Gujarat’s assistance and committing to completing the river linking project independently.

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The project was revitalized in 2022 under the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition, which allocated Rs 7,015 crores to the Nar-Par-Girna river linking initiative. This project aims to redirect excess water from the Nar and Par rivers into the Girna river valley, using canals and tunnels to irrigate approximately 50,000 hectares of land in the Nashik and Jalgaon districts.

Devendra Fadnavis  has also launched several other  irrigation initiatives to alleviate water shortages in West Vidarbha and Marathwada. For example, the Jalyukta Shivar Yojana and the Marathwada Water Grid project, aimed at channeling water from Western Channel rivers to Marathwada.

The state government has also greenlit the Nalganga-Wainganga interlinking project, a massive Rs 80,000 crore undertaking designed to transfer water from East Vidarbha rivers to West Vidarbha. This project is likely to irrigate 3.71 lakh hectares of land across six districts in Vidarbha.