Naveen Writes to Jharkhand CM Hemanta Soren, Seeking Cooperation for Early Completion of Ichha Darn

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today wrote to his Jharkhand counterpart Hemanta Soren, seeking cooperation for early completion of Ichha Darn and Flood moderation in Chandil Dam of Subarnarekha Multi- purpose project.

The early completion of Ichha Darn will benefit of farmers of both the states and storage of water up to FRL in Chandil Dam in monsoon season for mitigation of flood in Odisha, Naveen said.

Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project was taken up as a follow up action for utilization of water resources of Subarnarekha-Kharkhai Basin as per the tripartite agreement made during 1978 among erstwhile Bihar (now Jharkhand), Odisha & West Bengal, the Odisha Chief Minister mentioned in the letter.

Subarnarekha Irrigation Project of Odisha will be able to utilize its full irrigation potential only after completion of Ichha dam by Government of Jharkhand, the Odisha CM said.

He said, “I am happy to know that Government of Jharkhand has taken up Ichha dam construction work recently. Government of Odisha will extend all cooperation for Ichha Darn construction and reimburse Odisha’s share cost of dam in time”.

A sum of Rs.1026.91 crore has been paid to Government of Jharkhand for the above works till date against the estimated share cost of Odisha of Rs.1208 crore (2016 Price level). 36 villages of Odisha are affected under Ichha Dam reservoir sub-mergence area at FRL 225m. Accordingly, land acquisition and R&R work in Odisha portion have been taken up. As of now, 5196 ac of land (98%) out of 5283 ac has already been acquired. Rehabilitation assistance has been paid to 1268 Project Affected Persons(PAPs) out of total identified 1369 PAPs, which is about 93%, he said.

Chandil Darn across river Subarnarekha has been completed since long but water has been stored up to RL 181.50 m during monsoon against Full Reservoir Level of 192 m due to R&R issues. As full storage capacity has not been utilized in the darn during monsoon season, we are facing flood havoc more often, Naveen stated.