News:The Central government is working on the establishment of National Interlinking of Rivers Authority (NIRA).
Facts:
Functions of NIRA
- It will take up both interState and intraState river interlinking projects.
- It will also make arrangements for generating up funds, internally and externally.
Additional Information:
National River Linking Project (NRLP):
- The National River Linking Project (NRLP) formally known as the National Perspective Plan, aims to link Indian rivers by a network of reservoirs and canals.
- The main objective is to transfer water from water ‘surplus’ basins where there is flooding to water ‘deficit’ basins where there is drought/scarcity.
- It was prepared by the then Ministry of Irrigation in August 1980.
- The NRLP is managed by National Water Development Agency (NWDA), under the Ministry of Jal Shakti
- It proposes to 30 links to connect 37 rivers across India. It has two components:
- Himalayan Rivers Development Component: under it, 14 links have been identified.
- Peninsular Rivers Development Component or the Southern Water Grid: It includes 16 links that propose to connect the rivers of South India.
- Four priority links under Peninsular Rivers Component have been identified:
- Ken-Betwa link project:
- Damanganga-Pinjal link project,
- Par-Tapi-Narmada link project
- Mahanadi Godavari link project
