Senior BJP leader Rama Chandra Panda has urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik to implement the Mahanadi-Godavari flood moderation project for the state’s benefit.
“The project envisages linking of the Mahandi with the Rushikulya through a 224-km canal, which will be extended further to the Godavari. It will divert surplus water from the Mahandi to the Rushikulya,” he said. The canal would be dug from Barmula to Ganjam, he added.
On May 29, a high-level official team made a presentation on the project before the chief minister.
People of Ganjam, under the banner of Rushikulya Banchao Manch, have been demanding linking of the two rivers for past 15 years, the BJP leader said.
“The project will increase the state’s irrigation cover by around one lakh hectare, mitigate drinking water problem in over 500 villages, including Berhampur town, and also control floods in the two rivers,” he said. It will also benefit people of Khurda and Nayagarh districts, he added.
In 2000, Panda mooted the river-linking idea to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who appreciated it. To push the project, he also launched Jala Sanjog Yatra from Kasinagar in Gajapati district to Bhubaneswar in 2010.