Finance Minister announces Pennar-Cauvery linking project in Budget 2022

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the Centre's support to river-interlinking projects including Pennar-Cauvery if consensus arrived among beneficiary states.

"Draft Detail Project Reports (DPR)s of five river links, namely Damanganga-Pinjal, Par-Tapi- Narmada, Godavari-Krishna, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery have been
finalized. Once a consensus is reached among the beneficiary states, the Centre will provide support for implementation," she said.

Though Karnataka had been extending its support to the river-linking scheme, it has demanded its share in surplus water.

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"The proposal of interlinking of rivers to transfer surplus water from the Godavari to Krishna to Cauvery is a right decision. However, the benefit of transfer of surplus water must accrue equally to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The transferred water is a natural resource which belongs to all the States," said an official from Karnataka.

"If Karnataka got its rightful share in surplus water, then definitely the project will help the state," said the official.

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Even during the recent 29th Southern Zonal Council meeting, Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai reiterated the state’s rights over its share of river water and inter-linking projects.

Earlier, Union minister of state for jal shakti Bishweswar Tudu said that the detailed project reports of Pennar (Somasila)-Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link and Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar link had been completed and sent to the states concerned in April 2021 and August 2020 respectively.

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As per the DPR on the Godavari (Inchampalli)-Cauvery (Grand Anicut) link, there would be the transfer of 247tmcft of water from the Godavari to Krishna, Pennar and Cauvery delta. This project has three links, Godavari (Inchampalli)-Krishna (Nagarjunasagar), Krishna (Nagarjunasagar)-Pennar (Somasila) and Pennar (Somasila)-Cauvery (Grand Anicut). Tamil Nadu demanded 200 tmc of water as its share in the first phase of the river linking project.

Tamil Nadu also had demanded the Centre to declare Godavari-Cauvery interlink as a national project to benefit the southern states. However, Karnataka opposed Tamil Nadu's Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar intra-state linking project.

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