State okays Rs 890 crore to Brahmagavhan Scheme of Paithan

Aurangabad, July 27:

The state cabinet meeting today gave administrative approval to the fourth time revised proposal of the Brahmagavhan Lift Irrigation Scheme (BLIS) of valuing

Rs 890.64 crore.

After the formation of chief minister Eknath Shinde’s government, the district’s MLA Abdul Sattar was the first to get approved Rs 80 crore fund for the sutgirni proposal. Today, the MLA of Paithan Sandeepan Bhumre became the second beneficiary in the district. Myriad water projects valuing Rs 1310 crore have been sanctioned for the Paithan tehsil in the last two and a half years.

BLIS, a part of the sub-basin of Upper Godavari, is proposed in the sub-merged area of the Jayakwadi Project. The project will benefit irrigation facility to 20,265 hectares of farmland, spread in 65 villages of the Paithan tehsil.

The administrative approval for the third time revised proposal was granted in 2009. Today’s cabinet meeting approved the implementation of the 2018-19’s DSR (district scheduled rates) of the Department of Water Resources and Public Works Department. The proposal revised for the fourth time was prepared by executive engineer Dhananjay Godse.

The BLIS is underway for the past 12 years. Its cost has escalated from Rs 225 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in the last 11 years. The price spiralled up due to ongoing work by the contractor at a slow speed. The project claims that 15,000 hectares and 10,000 hectares will come under irrigation in Phase I and II of the scheme. The main contractor has sub-let the contract to another agency. Due to the absence of administrative approval, the work was lying pending. The cost of land acquisition is now Rs 250 crore. More than 110 hectares of land of more than 250 farmers will be acquired under Land Acquisition Act.

Bhumre said,” The cabinet approval will speed up the water project launched to overcome the spell of drought in the periphery. The tehsil will get adequate funds in future. Under Mission Smart Paithan, many works like the development of gardens, ghats, roads and installation of CCTVs etc will be undertaken here. The tehsil will witness more development works than any other tehsils.”