THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI & SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)
(a) & (b) Dam Safety inspection surveys and subsequent repair and remedy, if found necessary, are routinely carried out by the dam owners, which invariably are State Governments, State Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and a few Central PSUs etc. Central Water Commission (CWC) gives appropriate recommendations to the dam owners through National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) to carry out pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspection of the dams, categorize the condition of the dams and take remedial measures based on these inspection reports. CWC recommends to the dam owning agencies to constitute their own Dam Safety Review Panel (DSRP) for inspection of the dams. At present most of the States have constituted their own DSRP. Under Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), 14 guidelines/manuals related to dam safety, including “guidelines for Safety Inspection of the Dams” have been revised/published. CWC recommends to the dam owners to implement these guidelines and manuals and ensure conformity with these guidelines. These Guidelines are available on official website at https://damsafety.in.
Rajasthan has been included in Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project Phases II &III to be implemented during 2021-31. Rajasthan has proposed rehabilitation of 189 dams in its initial proposal with a financial outlay of Rs.965 Crore in DRIP Phases II & III. These dams shall be inspected by DSRP and based on their recommendations remedial measures for rehabilitation of dams shall be carried out.
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(c) & (d) Safety is a perception based on risk anticipation and risk assessment. Risk assessment is largely based on historic data and generally discounts unpredictable "black swan" events. The safety practices/standards of dams presently vary from State to State. In order to evolve a uniform and simplified dam safety procedure across the country, the Dam Safety Bill 2019 has been passed in Lok Sabha on 2nd August, 2019. The Dam Safety Bill 2019, inter alia, provides for surveillance, inspection, operation and maintenance of the specified dams for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning and for matters connected therewith. National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) is an advisory body which suggest ways to bring dam safety activities in line with the latest state-of-art techniques consistent with Indian conditions and acts as a forum for exchange of views on techniques adopted for remedial measures to relieve distress in old dams. It is chaired by Chairman, CWC and is represented by all the States having significant number of large dams and other dam owning organizations. So far, 39 meetings of NCDS have been held. Dam Safety Institutional Strengthening is one of the components of Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) which focuses on regulatory and technical frameworks for dam safety assurance.
(e) To improve safety and operational performance of selected dams along with institutional strengthening with system wide management approach, Ministry of Jal Shakti is implementing Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) with financial assistance from World Bank. It is a State Sector Scheme with central component with a provision for rehabilitation of 223 dams located in seven States. The budget outlay of the Scheme is Rs.3466 Crore with scheduled closure on March 31, 2021. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Phase II and Phase III of Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) on October 29, 2020. The Scheme envisages comprehensive rehabilitation of 736 dams located in 19 States and 3 Central Agencies with financial outlay of Rs.10,211 Cr. DRIP Phase II entails financial assistance from the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to the tune of 500 Million US dollars. It is a State Sector Scheme with Central component, with duration of 10 years, to be implemented in two Phases i.e. Phase-II and Phase-III, each of six years duration with an overlap of two years. The project is likely to commence from May/June, 2021.
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