Puducherry, March 4 The Puducherry government has developed a comprehensive project to repair, renovate, and restore 78 irrigation tanks under the Centrally sponsored PMKSY and "more crop per drop" scheme in the Union Territory.
The Public Works Department of the territorial government obtained technical appraisal and necessary clearance from the Centre for the Detailed Project Report prepared by the PWD, a release said on Wednesday.
As many as 78 irrigation tanks identified by the government will be taken up under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) with water spread area exceeding two hectares for restoration. The identified areas include 54 system and 24 non-system tanks, the release said.
It also stated that the project will include desilting and strengthening of the tank beds, repairing and reconstruction of sluices and surplus weirs, improvement of feeder canals and field channels, catchment treatment, prevention of soil erosion, recharging of artificial groundwater structures and activities of planting of saplings along with provisions such as walkways, benches and lighting around selected water bodies.
The release said that the total project cost would be Rs 496.73 crore, covering an irrigation ayacut of about 5612.47 hectares under system tanks and 858.18 hectares under non system tanks.
It is proposed that the restoration work will be completed in two years and the project aimed at enhancing water storage capacity, underground water recharge, irrigation reliability and agricultural productivity, besides flood management.
The release stated that the government aimed at strengthening sustainable water resource management and supporting long-term agricultural resilience in the region.