Naveen Patnaik reviews various Irrigation projects under AIBP.

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a high level meeting in the Orissa Secretariat on Monday reviewed progress of various Irrigation projects under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) .

The central government sponsored AIBP projects started in 1996. In this project there was a target for irrigating 4.67 lakh hector land and strengthening irrigation facility to 62 thousand hector land through 19 Large and Medium and 81 small irrigation projects . Out of which 7 Large and Medium ,24 small irrigation projects and strengthen of 62 thousand hector has been done. About Rs 11558 Crore funds for the above projects, Rs 5249 crore has been utilized by March,2010.

Upper Indravati,Subarnarekha,Rengali left canal Kanupur,Lower Indra, Lower Suktel,Anandapur, Telingir, Reda, Chheligarh, Rukur, and Titalagarh etc 12 large and medium irrigation works under progress.

Titilagarh project will supply water in the next Khariff season. Lower Indra ,Upper Indravati 2012 , Rengali left ,Subarnarekha, Anandapur, Kanupur, Reta and Telingir2013,Rukura, Chheligarh, and lower Suktel will be completed by 2014. Similarly , out of 57 small irrigation projects, 17 projects will be completed by 2011and 40 projects will be completed by 2012. There is a target to irrigate 15000hector land .The central government has been requested to include 72 new small irrigation projects and 454 lift irrigation projects under the AIBP scheme. Land acquisition is the main problem in the scheme. It has been decided to engage more field staff to speed up and solve the problem early.

Among others Chief Secretary Bijaya Kumar Patnaik, Principal Secretary of Finance Department Jugal Kishor Mohapatra, Secretary of Water Resources Department Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, and other high level officers of Water Resources Department were present.