BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly implement the Tapti Basin Mega Recharge Project, described by officials as the world’s largest groundwater recharge scheme.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis attended the 28th meeting of the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra Inter State Control Board here, where both the BJP-ruled state governments inked the MoU.
The Tapti Basin Mega Recharge Project is the third major inter-state river project featuring MP in the last five months, after the Ken-Betwa Link Project, which features MP and UP, and Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link project, which has participation of MP and Rajasthan.
Through the Tapti Basin Mega Recharge Project, three streams of the Tapti river, which originates from Multai in MP, will be developed in collaboration with the Maharashtra government to ensure optimal use of every drop of river water for irrigation in across both the states.
The interests of Madhya Pradesh’s water needs have been carefully considered in this project. The total water usage in the Tapti Basin Mega Recharge Project will be 31.13 TMC , with 11.76 TMC allocated to MP and 19.36 TMC to Maharashtra. The project will utilise 3,362 hectares of land in Madhya Pradesh, with no displacement of villages and no need for rehabilitation. The project will provide permanent irrigation facilities to 1,23,082 hectares in Madhya Pradesh and 2,34,706 hectares in Maharashtra.
Initially, a traditional reservoir project of 66 TMC capacity was proposed, which would have affected over 17,000 hectares of land, including forest areas and tiger reserves, and displaced around 14,000 people across 73 villages. The earlier model has now been replaced with a groundwater recharge-based approach, avoiding displacement and environmental impact.
“Today is a historic day as both states have agreed to implement the project conceptualised a long time back. Even the Inter-State Control Board meeting happened after 25 years,” Fadnavis said. “Both states will benefit from the implementation of the project, with Maharashtra’s three districts Budhana, Akola and Amravati, which have long been facing the problem of salty water, will be the major beneficiaries. This will help agriculture, drinking water and boost the overall economy of the two neighbouring states,” he said.
CM Yadav said, “The implementation of the project will boost the entire economy of the Nimar (southwestern MP) region.”
