Rehabilitation and Improvement Project of selected 736 dams across India got green signal
Dam safety is one of the most important feature of water and energy security as well as a vigilant Security guard against man made disasters. Taking into consideration the need of a robust dam safety regime across the country the Central Government recently cleared II and Phase III of Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) to improve the safety and operational performance of selected 736 dams across India.
Project's financial mechanism and time period :
The project, worth ₹10,211 crore, will be implemented from April 2021-March 2031. The project will be implemented over a period of 10 years in two phases -- each of six years duration with two years overlapping from April 2021 to March 2031.
₹10,211-crore Dam rehab project is geeting World Bank, AIIB’s ( Asian infrastructure investment bank ) assistance. The share of external funding is ₹7,000 crore of the total project cost, and balance ₹3,211 crore is to be borne by the concerned Implementing Agencies. The contribution of the govt is ₹1,024 crore as loan liability and ₹285 crore as counter-part funding for Central Component.
Originally, the total cost of DRIP was Rs. 2100 Crore with State component of Rs. 1968 Crore and Central Component of Rs. 132 Crore. Initially the project was a six-year Project which commenced on 18th April, 2012 with a scheduled closing on 30th June, 2018. The Project implementation has been granted in-principle approval for two years extension in the year 2017 by Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and the World Bank with a revised closure date of the project by 30th June 2020.
About DRIP - Dam Rehabilitation & Improvement Project :
The project implementation agencies for DRIP would be the owners of dam (i.e. Water Resources Departments (WRD) or State Electricity Boards (SEB)) in the five participating States. The overall implementation of the project would be coordinated by Central Water Commission. The project development objectives of DRIP are: (i) to improve the safety and performance of selected existing dams and associated appurtenances in a sustainable manner, and (ii) to strengthen the dam safety institutional set-up in participating states as well as at central level.
