DP CORRESPONDENT
Shimla
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and five Chief Ministers of other states which included Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi participated in the MOU signing ceremony in New Delhi on Friday in the presence of Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari for the construction of Rs 4,596.76 crore Renukaji multipurpose dam project on Giri river in upper Yamuna basin. Ministers of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Arjun Ram Meghwal and Satyapal Singh, Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh BK Agarwal and senior officers of six states were present in the function.
The shares of these states have been distributed as:-Haryana 47.82%, UP/UK 33.65%, HP 3.15%,, Rajasthan 9.34% and NCT of Delhi 6.04%. For the investigation and land acquisition of the project, Central government has released Rs 446.96 crore, government of Delhi has released Rs 214.84 crore and government of Haryana has released Rs. 25 crore till date.
The dam will augment water availability for Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. The project will also generate 40 MW of power during peak flow. The project is proposed to be executed by Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (HPPCL).

HP Chief Minister informed that since 90 percent cost of power component is being borne by Delhi government, Himachal would get about 200 million units of electricity at Rs. 0.30 per unit only. It would earn net revenue of about Rs 60 crore per annum to HPPCL and Rs. 12 crore to the state government in its first year of operation. These revenue benefits would further increase over a period of time. He added that with the flow of investment of more than Rs 5,000 crore, economy of state in general and district Sirmour in particular would benefit immensely. He informed that he had vigorously pursued the matter of funding the power component with the Centre as a result of which the Delhi government agreed to finance 90 percent cost of power house and the project received fast clearance within three months. He said that after the construction of dam, the flow of Giri River will increase about 110 percent which will meet the drinking water needs of Delhi and other basin states up to some extent in lean period. The project will provide 49800 ha m (0.498 billion cubic metre) of live storage in its reservoir and a firm water supply to the tune of 23 cumecs to Delhi, he added. The 90 percent cost of irrigation and drinking water component of the project i.e. Rs 3,892.83 crore will be provided by the Central government and rest 10 percent of the above cost i.e. Rs 432.54 crore by the basin states of Haryana, UP/UK, HP, Rajasthan & NCT of Delhi in the proportion as allocated in the MoU signed by the Chief Ministers of the basin states for the allocation of surface water of river Yamuna up to Okhla barrage.

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