Bhubaneswar, Nov 29
Chief Minister of eastern Indian Odisha state has asked his officials to expedite construction of Rengali irrigation canals.
Naveen Patnaik directed the officials to recruit necessary manpower and complete land acquisition process on priority basis.
Notably, nearly 79km canal has been completed by now. The government has set a target to irrigate 11,186 hectare land through Gondia Distribution System and 9,414 hectare land through Bega, Sadashiv and Kateni Distribution System.
As much as 4015 hectare land has been irrigated so far and 6100 hectare will be irrigated by January next year, the officials said.
The remaining 9000 hectare land will be irrigated by end of 2016, the officials added.
In the second phase, the construction of the main canal upto 16 km (from 79 km to 95 km) is underway. Already, three km has been completed and work is in full swing in the remaining 13 km.
The project is targeted to irrigate 15,654 hectare land through Narasinghapur and Athagarh Distribution System and 48,146 hectare land through Darpini Canal System, work on which will begin soon.
Work on the southern part of the Rengali canal system started in 1996-97 with a view to irrigate areas in Angul, Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Jajpur districts. The first phase of the project is providing irrigation in 20,600 hectare land.
