The project, a brainchild of Union minister for Shipping and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari, has been touted as a game-changer in transportation and meeting water needs of the desert state.
An ambitious project to bring Arabian Sea water to the state by developing a waterway connecting Gujarat’s Kutch to Sanchore in Rajasthan is caught between two reports that take contradictory stands regarding its feasibility.
The project, a brainchild of Union minister for Shipping and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari, has been touted as a game-changer in transportation and meeting water needs of the desert state. State minister for water resources and Bikaner MP Arjun Meghwal called on Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and discussed the project a couple of days ago.
Talking to scribes in Gandhinagar, he claimed that the project has received in-principle approval from the Union ministry and the state government. Contrary to his tweet claiming a forward movement in the project, engineers with the water resource department told DNA that the project has been shelved by the Rajasthan government because it is unviable.
Meghwal claimed that the Centre has proposed Rs10,000 crore project to develop a 590km long inland waterway connecting Gujarat and Rajasthan through the Jawai River, Luni River and Kori Creek in the Rann of Kutch. This project will create an alternative transport route to the railways. The minister further informed scribes in Gandhinagar that Gadkari has given in-principle approval to developing inland waterway No. 48 meant to connect Kori Creek area on the Arabian Sea in Kutch to Rajasthan and WAPCOS Ltd, the central PSU previously known as Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited, has already prepared a pre-feasibility report. Rajasthan government, he claimed, has already given green signal to the project.
When DNA contacted Rajasthan water resource department, a contradictory status of the project surfaced which is different to what Meghwal’s claims. Senior water resource engineers associated with the project claimed that the waterway was envisaged in 2015 and WAPCOS was asked to study its feasibility. “After the study it was found that the project is non-economical. In a meeting chaired by the chief minister Vasundhara Raje this year, the unfeasibility of the project was apprised of and the project was shelved,” said a senior officer associated with the project. Water resources department, principal secretary, Shikhar Agarwal, Rajasthan water resources minister Rampratap and Meghwal did not respond to the calls and messages by DNA to get an update on the status of the project.
The Project
Located on the northern tip of the Rann of Kutch, Sanchore is about 300km from the sea coast. In November 2017, the Modi government had issued list of 111 inland waterways, of them waterway between Kutch and Sanchore is at no,48. As per the proposal floated in the year 2015, the navigation channel of the canal to be developed for waterway was proposed at least 300 metre wide and about 25 metre deep. It was planned to start from the tip of Lakhpat at Kori Creek in Arabian Sea, run through the Rann of Kutch and join Sanchore.
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