Rajya Sabha
ONGC has undertaken a project titled “ONGC Project Saraswati”. It is an initiative to contribute to the welfare of the people in drought prone areas of Western Rajasthan by providing safe drinking water. Based on satellite imagery by ONGC, it was found that a few thousand years ago the river flowed from Northeastern side to Southwestern direction before disappearing into the desert. The Project is focused on identification fo deeper aquifers, otherwise not tapped by agencies such as State groundwater departments and Central ground water bodies. It is planned to drill deep tube wells down to 1000 metres below ground level at several places in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner districts. The operational activities in the project have been entrusted by ONGC to WAPCOS.
So far there is no proposal in M/o Water Resources/Central Ground Water Board to take the help of ONGC for searching the water resources of various rivers of the country which became extinct in the past.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Water Resources, Shri Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav in response to a question by Shri Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha today.
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SK/BS-3
(Release ID :23149)