Maharashtra: Authorities collects record Rs 81.35 crore from water users by Jayakwadi in 2022-23

Authorities have collected a record Rs 81.35 crore in 2022-23 as tax from those getting water from the Jayakwadi Dam, located some 50 kilometres from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, an irrigation department official said.

It is one of the biggest dams in the country with a storage capacity of 102 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) and supplies water for drinking as well as irrigation purposes to people in Aurangabad, Jalna and others parts of the state's Marathwada region, he said.

We have recovered Rs 81.35 crore from consumers of water this year, which is an all-time high. In fact, we have exceeded our target of Rs 60 crore. The maximum amount of Rs 77.60 crore was recovered from non-irrigation water beneficiaries, said Samadhan Sabbinwar, Superintendent Engineer of Command and Development Authority of Jayakwadi project.

The amount recovered from irrigation segment was Rs 3.75 crore, which is lower than our target of Rs 5 crore. A part of this amount will be used for dam maintenance and salaries of staff. The rest will be deposited with the state government, he added.

In 2016-17, the recovery was Rs 32.86 crore, in 2017-18 it was Rs 38.12 crore, in 2018-19 it was Rs 55.27 crore, in 2019-20 it was Rs 59.73 crore, in 2020-21 it was Rs 42.22 crore, while in 2021-22 it was Rs 59.26 crore, the official informed.