CHANDIGARH: To stop India’s river water from flowing into Pakistan, the Punjab government has sought Rs 412 crore from the Centre to build a dam at Makora Pattan on the confluence of Ravi and Ujh rivers.
The state has also impressed upon the Centre to accord it the status of a national project.
After a meeting with the Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, Punjab’s Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Water Resources Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria told mediapersons that with the construction of this dam, about 600 cc of river water flowing into Pakistan could be checked and utilized by the state for irrigation.
Bajwa and Sarkaria said that a 7-km channel would be constructed to hold this water and route it to the Kalanaur-Ramdas Canal System so that it could be used to irrigate 1 lakh acres of land, Giving an in-principle nod, Gadkari asked the state to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR).