Rs 20cr to be spent on Okhla barrage de-silting project

The project cost of cleaning the Okhla barrage, which has not been de-silted in the past 25 years, has been fixed at Rs 20 crore. The Noida authority and the irrigation department will share the expense.

The project cost of cleaning the Okhla barrage, which has not been de-silted in the past 25 years, has been fixed at Rs 20 crore. The Noida authority and the irrigation department will share the expense.

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The authority will bear half of the cost (Rs 10 crore) of the project that aims to clean the 3-km catchment area that falls within the jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh. Officials of the authority and the irrigation department had a meeting on Tuesday in this regard.

During his visit to Noida two weeks ago, UP public works department (PWD) and irrigation minister Shivpal Yadav had issued directions for de-silting of the reservoir. The authority will release the fund following the state government’s orders.

“We have agreed to fund the half of the cost of the project. Due to non-appointment of the chief executive officer at the authority, the authority will release the fund once we get orders from the state government officially,” said Anil Rajkumar, acting chief executive officer, Noida.

The de-silting of the Okhla barrage has been pending for the past 25 years. As a result of it, the water storage capacity of the reservoir has reduced to a pathetic level. As per the standard storage capacity, the barrage can store water that can be supplied for seven days. But due to non-cleaning of silt and garbage, it can only meet two hours’ supply. The water stored at the barrage is supplied to Delhi, Noida, Agra and Mathura.

Yadav had inspected the barrage two weeks ago along with Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate MKS Sundaram and officials of the irrigation department. Yadav had instructed the concerned authorities to take immediate steps to clean the barrage. Besides, Yadav had also asked the officials to clean all the canals.