KOSI-MECHI RIVER INTERLINKING PROJECT

 

The central government has approved construction of 76.20 km canals on the eastern bank of Kosi for irrigation purpose.

• It is the second major river interlinking project after Ken-Betwa of Madhya Pradesh.

 

Features & Advantages

• It will relieve large swathes of north Bihar from the menace of recurring floods.
• The mega project will also provide irrigation for a whooping over 2.14 lakh hectares of command areas spread across the districts of Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia and Katihar in north Bihar.
• Channeling Kosi water into the Mahananda will optimize redistribution of the surplus waters which will take irrigation potential in the region into a different league.
• Kosi-Mechi’s interlinking project is a green project.
• Mechi River will get water from another source and it will become a vast natural resource of irrigation.

 

Aim

• The project is aimed at alleviating flood.
• This project also has the potential to usher in the next green revolution in the Seemanchal region.

Seemanchal region includes districts of Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj.

 

About Kosi-Mechi river interlinking project 

• This interlinking project envisages diversion of part of surplus water of Kosi river through existing Hanuman Nagar barrage to the Mahananda basin.
• Mechi is an important tributary of the Mahananda river. Its basin remains mostly deficient in providing adequate water for irrigation.

 

‘National Project’ status

• Bihar’s Kosi-Mechi Interlinking project is believed by experts to qualify for a ‘National Project’ status.
• The project fulfills all mandatory provisions and parametres such as ensuring an irrigation command area of two lakh hectares or more.
• The entire command area is contiguous to an international boundary (India-Nepal) is a critical aspect that the Centre would likely take special note of in our quest for getting it declared a national project.

 

Green Project

• The river interlinking project involves no displacement of population and there is no acquisition of any forest land. The total land requirements is about 1,396.81 hectares.
• No National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, Eco-sensitive areas, etc. are present within a 10 km radius of the project’.

 

Source: Times of India

 

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