Question : Repair and Rehabilitation of Dams

(a) whether the Government has chalked out a plan for repair and rehabilitation of 700 large dams across 18 States with an estimated cost of Rs. 7,000 crores and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether this project is to be funded by the World Bank;
(c) if so, the present states of the project and time schedule fixed by the Government for its completion;
(d) whether the World Bank in principle has agreed to provide funds for this project and if so, the details thereof and the extent to which safety and operational performance of these 700 dams is likely to be improved; and
(e) the details of the present position of water in major dams across the country especially after late arrival of monsoon and drought situation in the country?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI & SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)

(a) to (d) Yes, Sir. The Ministry invited proposals from State Governments as well as Central agencies in 2017 for Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP Phase II & III). 18 States and two Central agencies submitted the proposals for inclusion of 687 dams at an estimated cost of Rs.10212 Crore. Screening Committee of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has approved the proposal. World Bank has accepted the proposal in principle to provide external assistance amounting to US $ 1 billion. The project is to be implemented in two phases with each phase of six years duration and an overlap of two years over each other and the implementation period is from 2020 to 2030.

The objectives of DRIP Phase- II & III are:

i. to improve the safety and operational performance of selected existing dams and associated appurtenances in a sustainable manner,
ii. to strengthen the dam safety institutional setup in participating States as well as at Central level, and
iii. Exploration of alternative incidental means at few of selected dams to generate the incidental revenue for sustainable operation and maintenance of dams.
(e) Central Water Commission monitors live storage status of 91 reservoirs of the country and issues weekly bulletin on every Thursday. As per latest bulletin dated 20.06.2019, live storage available in these reservoirs is 27.265 billion cubic meter (BCM), which is 17% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The live storage available in these reservoirs is 92% of the live storage of corresponding period of last year and 93% of storage of average of last ten years.
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