Solan: Work on Renuka Dam, conceived in 1976, will begin after February next year

Solan: Conceived nearly 48 years ago in 1976, work on the much-awaited Renukaji multi-purpose dam to ease the water woes of Delhi’s National Capital Region (NCR) is yet to begin. Once completed, it will supply 500 million cubic metres of water per year. However, its construction will not begin before February 2025, as submitted by the state government in response to a question posed by the Gagret MLA in the last assembly session in February. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually laid the foundation stone for it on December 27, 2021. Reasons for the delay include opposition from local residents as well as environmentalists, red-tapism, besides several technical and feasibility reports that were submitted to the central government to seek various clearances. Work is expected to pick up pace once key works like the design of the dam and diversion tunnels are finalised. According to the reply, “The Central Water Commission (CWC) has been appointed as the design consultant and a panel of geological experts is carrying out investigations for the design of the dam and diversion tunnels.

Investigations in the main dam area have been completed, while investigations in the spillway and downstream cofferdam area are ongoing.” Based on the results of these investigations, the CWC will proceed to design the dam and diversion tunnels. The commencement of construction for the diversion tunnels is expected in August 2024, while construction of the main dam is estimated to start in February 2025. Envisaged as a storage project on the Giri river in Sirmaur district, it envisages construction of a 148-metre high rock-fill dam and a dam toe powerhouse on the Giri river at Dadahu in Sirmaur district. It has been declared a project of national importance and thus its cost will be borne by the Central government and other beneficiary states in the ratio of 90:10. Its estimated cost has been estimated at Rs 6,946.99 crore. Out of 954.27 hectares of private land, 947.4 hectares of land has been acquired, while 909 hectares of forest land will be transferred after forest clearance phase-2. For this, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had laid down conditions for fresh counting of trees and assessment of suitability of sites identified for compensatory afforestation, which have been fulfilled. The compensatory afforestation plan has also been handed over to the forest department. Renukaji Divisional Forest Officer Parminder Singh said that the state government has submitted its case to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for phase-2 forest clearance, which is awaited.