Goa to get more water from Tillari project

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2009-01-12
PANAJI- Additional water of Tillari project will be released in March, this year, touching 120-MLD mark, which will take care of most of North Goa’s water requirements for irrigation and drinking purposes for another decade, said Tillari project officials on Sunday.
This along with commissioning of the 10-mw Konal Hydel power generating plant by February could at last show tangible results of a project hit by inordinate delays. The Tillari project is aimed to irrigate and cater to raw water needs of large parts of the state as envisaged by its planners in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“This will take care of water requirements of Bicholim, Bardez and Tiswadi till 2020,” the managing director of the Tillari Irrigation Development Corporation, Mr S Paramasivan told ‘The Navhind Times’.
At present the Assonora treatment plant receives around 45 MLD raw water from Tillari.
Sources informed that this additional facility is being constructed at the side of the existing facility at Assonora and is almost complete.
The Konal Hydel plant has been built on a built-own-operate and transfer basis, reportedly by the Pune-based Mahalaxmi Vidyut Pvt Ltd. They have been given a 30-year lease. The power that will be generated by the plant will be sold to the Maharashtra government and Goa can get a share of at least 73 per cent of the total power supply.
But the state government has to now decide whether they are interested in the power and if they are, at what cost it would be economical for them.
The rate has still not been finalised.
“Only intention has been made known so if we demand they will not say no,” said Mr Paramasivan.
But he informed that the Mahrashtra government would pay the corporation money for the usage of water for power generation.
As per the original agreement signed in 1997 between the governments of Goa and Maharashtra 7.3 mw was to go to Goa while the balance would be Maharashtra’s.
However, with the Maharashtra government handing over the project to the private party and the project being completed without any investment of the government as the private party investing a figure of almost Rs 70 crore.
On water from the Tillari dam, Mr Paramasivan said that on December 4, 2008, the agreed date, water was released from the main dam and reached the Goa border on December 5 with Assonora plant getting water for irrigating. Pernem, Bicholim and surrounding areas got water by December 6, 2008.
Tillari officials informed that the dam work will be completed by May 2009 while the whole project, both in Goa and Maharashrtra, would be completed by 2010 to 2011.
“At present the work on the Goa side is 90 per cent completed while on the Maharashtra side it is 99 per cent completed,” he said but stressed that this was the common work agreed on by both the sides. It is believed that Maharashtra is continuing the work till Banda.
He also said that the Tillari project would take care of the total water requirement, including irrigation (14,000 hectares), for ten months of the year. But two months (October and November) have been earmarked for maintenance.
The Tillari project, first mooted in 1989 as a joint venture between the governments of Maharashtra and Goa, has faced interminable delays for over a decade due to paucity of funds, delay in clearance from the Centre and misunderstandings between partner governments.
Though initially the project cost was estimated at Rs 217 crore, and in 1999-00, the Planning Commission estimating it at Rs 776.70 crore, has reached a mind-boggling Rs 1,390 crore as per revised 2007 estimates.
This project, envisages the construction of a storage dam across river Tillari and a powerhouse with an installed capacity of 10 mw and aims at irrigating 23,654 hectares of land in the two states. The storage dam with a maximum height of 71 metres, is to have live storage capacity of 447 million cubic metres.
The benefits of the project would be shared between Goa and Maharashtra in the ratio of 73:27 and the cost of the project would be shared in the ratio of 76:24.