The long-awaited Phina Singh irrigation project in Himachal’s Kangra district is expected to be completed soon and the Centre has released ₹60.26 crore, deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri said on Sunday.
The project, being constructed at an estimated cost of ₹643 crore, has remained pending for several years. Agnihotri said the state government had already spent around ₹300 crore from its own resources on the project.
He said the fresh central funding followed sustained efforts by the state government and a series of meetings with the Centre. The release of the funds would help accelerate construction and facilitate early completion of the project, he added.
The project has been stalled for over a decade and the state government in several rounds of talks and deliberations with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, has taken up this matter since the work on the project was being affected due to insufficient funding. The Phina Singh project in Nurpur in Kangra district was started at an initial cost of ₹204 crore in 2011, which has now escalated to over ₹600 crore.
The project aims at interlinking Kalam nullah and Chaki river — two tributaries of the Beas river flowing through Nurpur. It also involves constructing a concrete gravity dam across the Chaki river. Water from the dam is to be transported through a 4,307-m tunnel to irrigate 4,025 hectares across 60 villages in Nurpur.
{{/usCountry}}The project aims at interlinking Kalam nullah and Chaki river — two tributaries of the Beas river flowing through Nurpur. It also involves constructing a concrete gravity dam across the Chaki river. Water from the dam is to be transported through a 4,307-m tunnel to irrigate 4,025 hectares across 60 villages in Nurpur.
{{/usCountry}}