Bhopal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Wednesday, December 25,  lay the foundation stone of the Ken-Betwa river linking project, the first such initiative under the national river interlinking policy, at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh.

Nearly 44 lakh people in 10 districts of Madhya Pradesh and 21 lakh in Uttar Pradesh will get drinking water under the project, which is estimated to cost Rs 44,605 crore, MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said on Tuesday.

Nearly 7.18 lakh farmer families of 2,000 villages will be benefitted from the project, which will also generate 103 MW of hydropower and 27 MW of solar energy, he said.

“Prime Minister Modi is coming to Khajuraho in Chhatarpur district on December 25 to lay the foundation of this project which will change the image and destiny of Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh,” Yadav said.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project is a unique example of cooperation and coordination between the central government, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, he said.

Prime Minister Modi has taken the initiative to realise the dream of former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the river linking campaign, Yadav added.

Through this project, farmers will get ample water for irrigation and it will also provide sufficient water for drinking and industrial uses.

Along with the economic and social development of the area, tourism will also be promoted and new employment opportunities will be created. The situation of groundwater in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region will also improve, the CM said.

Yadav said Ken-Betwa is the largest irrigation project in the country, adopting an underground pressurised pipe irrigation system.

Under the project, a 77-metre high and 2.13 kilometres long Daudhan dam and two tunnels (upper level 1.9 km and lower level 1.1 km) will be constructed on the Ken river in the Panna Tiger Reserve.

The dam will store 2,853 million cubic metres of water, the chief minister said.

The surplus Ken water will be transferred to the Betwa river through the 221-km-long link canal from Daudhan dam, providing irrigation and drinking water facilities in both the states, he said.

With the project, 8.11 lakh hectare area can be irrigated in 2,000 villages of 10 districts – Panna, Damoh, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Niwari, Sagar, Raisen, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Datia. Nearly seven lakh farmer families will be benefitted from this, the chief minister said.

The Ken-Betwa project will provide an annual irrigation facility in 59,000 hectare area in Uttar Pradesh and stabilisation of the existing irrigation in 1.92 lakh-hectare area, which will provide irrigation facilities in Mahoba, Jhansi, Lalitpur and Banda districts of UP, he said.

The project also includes the work of saving the historical Chandela era heritage ponds in Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh and Niwari districts of MP, where water can be stored during the rainy season.

The Daudhan reservoir will provide drinking water to wild animals in the Panna Tiger Reserve throughout the year, improve the forest ecosystem and bring relief to UP’s Banda district from the flood menace, Yadav said.

The water crisis prevalent in the Bundelkhand region will end and migration for employment will also be checked, he said.

A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on March 22, 2021 by the chief ministers of MP, UP and the Union Jal Shakti minister in the presence of PM Modi for the implementation of the project.