BHUBANESWAR: Even as the left bank canal of Rengali irrigation project has been dragging on for years due to land acquisition and forest land conversion issues, several other externally-aided irrigation projects without such problems seem to have fared no better.
Low expenditure of the annual plan outlay has revealed the laggardness in execution of the projects. One prime example is the Odisha Integrated Irrigation Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture (OIIPCRA) programme, a tank-based project assisted by World Bank to improve irrigation efficiency and strengthen climate resilience agriculture.
The estimated cost of the project, which commenced from December 2019, was about Rs 1,680 crore with completion target of six years, by December 2025. The state government had made a budgetary provision of Rs 380 crore in 2024-25 for the project even as the Water Resources department had an unspent balance of Rs 225 crore. However, the total expenditure till the end of March this year was Rs 155 crore which comes to around 41 per cent.
The project aims at demonstrating climate-smart agriculture in about 56,400 ha of command area under 538 minor irrigation projects (MIPs) and about 70,000 ha of rainfed area for augmenting the capacity and income of farmers in 15 districts. The Water Resources department selected 537 tanks in the districts for rehabilitation and stabilisation of irrigation over 91,435 ha to improve crop productivity and insulating farmers from climate change.
According to progress report of the department, rehabilitation and stabilisation of 157 water tanks have been completed while 189 more are under progress. While tenders for 51 tank projects are under evaluation, another 19 are under process. The total value of these contracts amounts to Rs 142 crore.
With only eight months left, the total expenditure under the OIIPCRA projects till February was Rs 663.4 crore, which is 39 per cent of the total cost.
While the cost of the Rengali left bank canal project has been revised many times, the department has so far utilised Rs 1,306 crore out of the revised cost of Rs 3,063.67 crore. The plan outlay for the last financial year was Rs 160.5 crore out of which Rs 101.3 crore was spent till February creating irrigation potential for over 17,000 ha out of the planned 39,416 ha.
Similarly, the expenditure on the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) was only Rs 1.33 crore out of Rs 15 crore outlay.