The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Central Water Commission recently approved the revised budget of Rs.7,777 crore for Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation's Gosikhurd irrigation project in Maharashtra.

The proposed project, has encountered several roadblocks in the past few years due to lack of funds, so the Centre had recently declared Gosikhurd as a national asset and decided to provide nearly 90 per cent of the funds for the project and the state government will share the rest 10 per cent amount. The original estimated cost of the Gosikhurd project was Rs.372 crore in 1982, while in 1988, the cost had gone up to Rs.461 crore and in 1995 it rose to Rs.2,091 crore.

The project envisages construction of a 11.35 km long earthen dam with gated spillway across Wainganga river near Gosikhurd village. The Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation has spent about Rs.2,464 crores till 7 December 2008 on the project that will develop irrigation potential for 2.50 lakh ha of land in Nagpur, Bhandara and Chandrapur districts.

Currently, about 97 per cent of dam work is complete, raise of the embankment is in progress, 90 per cent concrete work of spillway is complete, 33 gates have been installed, while the ancillary works are underway. The project also includes four lift irrigation schemes and generation of 24 MW power.