The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has completed the detailed project reports (DPRs) of Ken-Betwa river and Damanganga-Pinjal river linking projects.

Ken-Betwa river linking project aims to transfer 591 million cu mtr of surplus water in the Ken basin through a 231.45-km canal, to the Betwa. It seeks to provide irrigation to 1,27,000 ha in the Raisen and Vidisha districts of Madhya Pradesh, with added benefits to drought-prone districts Hamirpur and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattarpur and Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh.

The Damanganga-Pinjal river linking project is a trans-valley diversion project aimed at transporting 1,000 million cu mtr of water from the Damanganga basin in Valsad in Gujarat to Pinjal basin through the Vaitarna basin in Nashik. From there, the water will go to Greater Mumbai by taking it to Tansa river. The project aims at meeting the drinking water demand of Mumbai city by 2020.

The DPRs of the above projects have been submitted to the respective state governments. The Burhi-Gandak-Noon-Baya-Ganga and Kosi-Mechi Links in Bihar, Ponnair-Palar Link of Tamil Nadu, Wainganga-Nalganga Link of Maharashtra and Barakar-Damodar-Subernarekha Link of Jharkhand have also been taken up for the preparation of DPRs.

The deadline of the projects will depend on the statutory and techno-economic clearances.